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FEB   8    1954 


THE 


UNION   PULPIT. 


A    COLLECTION    OF    SERMONS    BY    MINISTERS 
OF    DIFFERENT    DENOMINATIONS. 


"  In  e&30Eiials,  unity  ;  in  non-essentials,  liberty ;  in  all  things,  cinxTity. "—Auffusiine. 


FIRST     EDITION. 


WASHINGTON,    D.    C. 

PUBLISHED  BY  WILLIAM  T.  SMITHSON,  ^'^'^ 

FOR  THE   VOUXG  MEN'S   CHRISTIAN    ASSOCIATION    OF  WASHINGTOX,  D.  C. 

I860, 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  June,  1860, 

By  William  T.  Smithson, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Columbia. 


BUELL  &   BLANCHARD,  PRINTERS. 

C.  W.  MURKAY,  STEREOTYPER. 

STEKEOTYPED  BY  BLAXCHAKD'S  ^EVf  PROCESS. 


I>IlEir'A.OE. 


This  volume,  containing  tlie  productions  of  some 
among  the  most  gifted,  pious,  and  distinguished  cler- 
gymen in  the  United  States,  and  adorned  with  faith- 
ful and  elegantly  engraved  likenesses  of  the  authors, 
is  published  under  the  auspices  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  of  "Washington  city,  in  the  full 
confidence  that  its  character  and  merits  will  insure 
for  it  a  favorable  reception  and  a  general  circulation. 
The  names  of  those  who  have  prepared  the  following 
discourses  are  sufficient  guaranty  of  their  excellence. 
They  represent  various  evangelical  denominations, 
and  every  section  of  the  country  ;  and  this  work,  the 
result  of  such  a  rare  combination  of  talent  and  piety, 
will  not,  only  constitute  a  valuable  addition  to  our 
national  literature,  but  also  it  is  believed  tend 
materially  to  advance  Christian  Union,  and  prove, 
through  the  blessing  of  God  on  the  truths  which  it 
contains,  the  means  of  great  spiritual  benefit. 

But  while  we  feel  that  the  work,  in  itself,  justly 
claims  approbation  and  patronage,  we  trust  that  the 
object  to  which  tlie  proceeds  of  its  sale  are  to  be  ap- 
plied, will  still  more  entitle  it  to  the  aid  of  Christians 


IV  PREFACE. 

and  philanthropists  throughout  our  land,  m  pro- 
moting its  circulation. 

This  object,  so  generously  advanced  by  the  emi- 
nent divines  who  have  furnished  these  sermons,  is  to 
enable  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  of 
Washington  to  provide,  at  this  centre  of  political  and 
social  influence,  a  suitable  hall,  commodious,  attract- 
ive, and  accessible,  with  a  library,  reading  room,  and 
other  appliances  for  social,  intellectual,  and  spiritual 
improvement,  worthy  of  the  city  and  of  the  Christian 
and  moral  sentiment  of  the  whole  nation.  Since  the 
organization  of  the  Association,  in  1852,  these  objects 
have  been  steadily  kept  in  view,  and  to  a  limited 
extent  accomplished.  We  have  now  a  library  of 
3,000  volumes,  of  standard  secular  and  rehgious 
literature,  with  a  good  supply  of  periodicals  and 
newspapers  in  our  reading  room,  which  is  the  only 
one  in  the  city.  Our  funds,  however,  have  mainly 
been'required  for  more  active  benevolent  efforts,  and 
we  have  not  been  able  to  secure  an  endowment,  or 
a  suitable  building  for  our  purposes.  Every  year, 
in  adding  to  our  opportunities  for  usefulness,  has 
extended  our  plans  for  the  promotion  of  the  cause 
of  Christ ;  and  while  we  deplore  our  past  inefficiency 
and  failures,  we  still  feel  assured  that  the  Association 
has  been  a  blessing  to  the  community,  and  has  had 
continued  indications  of  Divine  favor  as  well  as  of 
public  approbation  and  confidence.  ' 

W6  occupy  a  peculiar  field,  and  the  circumstances 
in  which  we  are  placed  entitle  us  to  the  considera- 
tion of  the  citizens  of 'all  parts  of  our  country.  We 
must  labor  and  plan  not  only  for  our  permanent 


PREFACE. 


population,  but  also  for  the  multitudes  that  continu- 
allyrepair  to  the  Capital  of  the  Union,  from  motives 
of  profit,  pleasure,  ambition,  or  in  the  service  of  the 
Government.  Of  this  large  class,  only  a  small  pro- 
portion identify  themselves  with  our  churches,  or, 
even  if  professors  of  religion,  make  themselves  known 
here  as  Christians  ;  while  many  become  engrossed 
by  the  absorbing  interest  of  political  excitement,  the 
fascinations  of  fashionable  life,  or  the  seductions  of 
worldly  amusements  and  evil  associations.  The 
young  men  who  come  from  their  homes  in-  the 
various  States,  are  especially  in  danger  from  these 
allurements  ;  and  to  throw  safeguards  around  them, 
to  introduce  them  to  good  companions,  to  churches 
and  Sunday  schools,  and  to  enlist  them  in  active 
Christian  and  benevolent  labors,  are  special  and 
prominent  objects  of  our  organization. 

Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,  though  of 
recent  origin,  have  already  become  a  powerful  in- 
strumentality, noble  in  design,  simple  jn  method,  and 
efficient  in  operation.  They  have  united  Christians 
of  every  name  in  fellowship  of  spirit  and  in  concert 
of  action,  without  interfering  with  denominational 
preferences  or  obligations,  and  in  their  operations 
have  aimed  to  avoid  suspicion  of  any  substitution 
for  the  church,  while  they  develop  the  talents  and 
activity  of  the  laity,  and  endeavor  to  induce  all  to 
render  cheerful  service  in  the  promotion  of  the  Re- 
deemer's kingdom.  They  have  provided  for  the 
wants  of  the  poor,  for  the  education  of  the  ignorant 
and  the  neglected,  the  relief  of  the  sick  and  dying, 
the  diffusion  of  the  Gospel  in  jails,  asylums,  and  sim- 


VI  PREFACE. 

ilar  institutions,  the  introduction  of  strangers  to 
suitable  homes,  the  employment  of  the  destitute,  and 
the  advancement  of  all  that  can  ennoble  man's  char- 
acter. 

The  extensive  sale  which  we  confidently  trust 
this  work  may  have,  will  materially  aid  us  to  ac- 
complish these  important  purposes.  Every  effort 
has  been  made  to  secure  the  highest  literary  and 
artistic  excellence  in  its  publication,  and  we  fully 
commend  it  to  public  consideration. 

Joseph  H.  Bradley,  Jun., 

M.  H.  Miller, 

E.  T.  Morsell, 

Henry  Beard, 

J.  Hall  Moore, 

T.  J.  Magruder, 

William  J.  Rhees, 
Committee  on  hehalf  of  the  Association. 

Rooms  op  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association, 

Washington,  D.  C,  May,  1860. 


INTEODUCTION. 


ilad  one  stood  by  and  listened  to  the  prayer  of  the 
Saviour  for  the  unity  of  His  people  upon  earth,  as  it  first 
fell  from  His  lips,  possibly  the  reflection  might  have  im- 
mediately arisen.  How  singular,  if  not  unnecessary,  is  this 
petition !  Can  the  followers  of  Christ  ever  be  otherwise 
than  one  people,  bearing  the  same  likeness,  manifesting 
the  same  spirit,  cherishing  the  same  views,  maintaining 
the  same  doctrines,  actuated  by  the  same  motives,  engaged 
in  the  same  work,  and  sharing  the  same  reward?  But 
had  He  chosen  for  His  stand-point  centuries  after,  when 
the  Reformation  had  caused  a  breach  in  the  colossal  struc- 
ture of  the  Romish  ecclesiasticism,  and  men's  thoughts 
began  to  be  free  from  the  despotism  of  a  thousand  years,  or 
during  the  succeeding  periods,  when  opinions  newly  quick- 
ened were  clashing,  and  the  din  of  controversy,  might  be 
heard  on  all  sides,  like  the  roar  of  waters  long  fast,  but 
now  rushing  into  the  channels  which  had  suddenly  been 
thrown  open — as  the  vision  of  all  this  passed  before  him, 
then  possibly  the  very  opposite  reflection  might  have  been 
suggested.  How  idle,  if  not  impossible,  is  this  petition ! 
Can  these  apparently  sundered  and  fragmentary  portions 
be  ever  united,  so  that  they  may  have  an  essential  oneness 
in  the  midst  of  much  that  seems  so  diverse,  and  even  an- 
tagonistic ?  Yet  neither  of  these  reflections  corresponds 
with  the  design  or  the  verification  of  the  language  of 


VIII  INTRODUCTION. 

Christ,  and  the  history  of  His  cause  among  men  shows 
that  both  alike  are  erroneous. 

The  lesson  which  God  has  taught  His  people,  through 
all  these  changing  aspects  and  fortunes  of  the  church,  is, 
first  of  all,  that  Christ  in  God  and  God  in  Christ  is,  and 
is  to  be  acknowledged  as  the  supreme  Head  of  the 
church,  both  in  heaven  and  on  earth ;  and  then,  by  a 
series  of  inevitable  consequences,  that  the  "Word  of  God 
is  the  only  standard  of  ecclesiastical  authority,  and  the  sole 
rule  of  faith  and  practice — that  the  truth  of  God  is  th^  in- 
strument of  the  spiritual  dispensation  which  now  extends 
over  the  world — ^that  the  power  of  the  church,  whether  in 
her  offices  or  her  ordinances,  can  be  no  greater  and  no 
other  than  is  sanctioned  by  the  canons  of  the  one  divinely- 
inspired  volume,  known  and  accepted  as  the  Bible — ^that 
the  traditions  of  men  and  the  decrees  of  councils  are  of  no 
validity  to  bind  the  conscience,  beyond  a  clear  warrant 
obviously  contained  or  properly  deduced  from  the  book  of 
Revelation — that  there  may  be  catholicity  of  spirit,  with 
diversity  of  creeds,  in  things  subordinate — that  unity  may 
exist  without  uniformity,  and  uniformity  without  unity — 
that  there  may  be  "  separation  without  schism,  and  schism 
without  separation  " — that  the  metaphysics  of  philosophy 
and  the  assumptions  of  hierarchal  power  are  no  part  of  the 
essential  oneness  of  the  church — that  the  long  dominion 
and  usurpation  of  the  anti-Christian  Governments  rest 
alone  upon  the  assumptions  of  a  permitted  train  of  events 
in  providence,  and  not  upon  any  jure  dwino  disclosed  in 
the  Word  of  God — that  the  true  test  of  what  have  been 
opprobriously  styled  the  heretical  sects*  is  their  submission 
to  or  rejection  of  the  doctrines  of  salvation  contained  in 
the  sacred  Scriptures,  and  not  their  adherence  to  anj^  sup- 
posajble  lineal  successions  of  men  exclusively  appropriated 
to  one  body  or  another — that  whatever  company  of  be- 
lievers sincerely  and  unqualifiedly  accept  the  canon  of  in- 
spiration, do  in  fact  constitute  a  living  and  essential  por- 
tion of  Christ's  universal  church  on  earth — and  that,  what- 


INTRODUCTION.  IX 


ever  agency  or  combination  shall  be  devoted  to  tlie  promo- 
tion of  the  aims  of  a  practical  Christianity,  founded  purely 
upon  the  instructions  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New, 
is  within  the  scope  of  the  divine  covenant  and  favor,  and 
may  lawfully  expect  to  share  in  the  divine  blessing.  These 
lessons  have  been  gradually  unfolded,  till  now  the  princi- 
ples they  illustrate  and  impress  have  become,  in  a  large 
degree,  familiar  to  the  mind  of  the  evangelical  Christian 
world.  At  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  the  main  energies 
of  that  great  movement  were  called  out  to  resist,  and,  as 
far  as  possible,  to  overthrow,  the  hoary  errors  and  super- 
stitions which  had  been  growing  in  their  strength  and  mis- 
chief for  many  centuries.  It  was  not  to  be  expected  that 
the  influence  of  so  vast  a  reign  of  bigotry  and  intolerance 
could,  at  a  single  stride,  be  left  totally  behind.  Accordingly, 
as  the  different  parties  of  the  common  uprising  emerged 
from  the  shadows  of  the  past,  they  bore  with  them,  into 
their  new  positions  and  relations,  something  of  that  sever- 
ity and  bitterness  which  had  been  running  in  the  veins  of 
thirty  generations.  It  has  taken  the  last  three  hundred 
years  of  polemical  strife  to  define  the  opinions  of  men 
upon  the  important  but  yet  not  vital  questions  which  enter 
into  the  circle  of  religious  truth  and  practice,  and  to  estab- 
lish and  confirm  the  basis  of  mutual  toleration  and  repose. 
And  though  this  work  has  not  to  this  day  been  wholly 
accomplished,  yet  a  vast  progress  has  been  made.  The 
great  line  of  Christian  co-operation  and  heart-felt  sympa- 
thy, in  all  endeavors  to  promote  the  common  good  of 
mankind  upon  evangelical  principles,  has  been  reached. 
Men  have  found  that,  notwithstanding  their  theological 
and  ecclesiastical  differences,  and  while  they  are  paying  a 
cordial  allegiance  to  the  standards  and  polity  of  their  own 
denominational  organization,  they  can,  at  the  same  time, 
lay  their  hearts  and  their  heads  together  upon  the  altar  of 
their  common  service  and  obedience  to  Christ  for  the 
blessing  of  the  whole  world. 

The  more  positive  evidences  of  this  advancement  in  the 


S  INTRODUCTION. 

unity  for  whicli  Christ  prayed  began  to  be  exhibited  in 
modern  forms  more  than  half  a  century  ago,  in  the  found- 
ation of  the  great  parental  Bible  societies  of  British  and 
American  Christians,  and  the  numerous  auxiliary  or  kin- 
dred associations  in  various  parts  of  the  world.  Attend- 
ing or  following  these  establishments,  the  missionary  spirit 
rose,  with  a  fresh  impulse,  in  almost  every  portion  of  the 
evangelical  church;  and  this  again,  both  at  home  and 
abroad,  gave  birth  to  new  forms  of  Christian  beneficence, 
or  served  to  quicken  the  energies  of  institutions  already 
in  existence.  Thus  sprang  up,  in  progress  of  time,  the 
wide  and  glorious  circle  of  evangelical  establishments 
which  adorn  the  civilization  of  the  present  century,  and 
shed  their  benignant  light  over  the  family  of  man. 
Through  the  operation  of  these  great  foundations,  a  most 
happy  effect  has  been  produced;  and  during  the  last 
twenty  years,  much  of  the  asperity  which  characterized 
the  former  contests  of  the  denominations  has  been  abated ; 
prejudices  have  been  worn  away;  heated  disputes  con- 
cerning the  doctrines  and  polity  of  the  church  have,  in  a 
great  degree,  been  pretermitted.  Men  of  all  parties, 
throughout  the  Protestant  world,  are  beginning  to  discover 
a  more  excellent  way ;  and  while  loyalty  to  the  system  of 
their  choice,  and  fidelity  to  the  principles  involved  in  it, 
have  neither  been  invaded  nor  impaired,  they  have  been 
coming  gradually  to  a  common  conviction  that  they  are 
one  in  the  great  essentials  of  our  glorious  Christianity, 
and  that  it  is  in  this  peculiar  mode  of  the  divine  provi- 
dence that  the  prayer  of  our  Lord  is  to  be  wisely  and  gra- 
ciously accomplished. 

But  during  the  period  already  indicated,  perhaps  noth- 
ing has  transpired  in  the  Christian  world  whidi  seems  to 
have  more  clearly  proved  at  once  the  fruit  and  exemplifi- 
cation of  this  spirit  of  Christian  union  than  the  rise  of  that 
series  of  beneficent  organizations  which  are  now  known  as 
the  Confederations  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tions throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  Christendom. 


INTRODUCTION.  XI 

"Whether  they  be  regarded  in  the  suddenness  of  their  ad- 
vent, the  rapidity  of  their  expansion,  the  simplicity  of 
their  construction,  the  desideratum  they  satisfy,  the  work 
they  are  accomplishing,  and  the  almost  unparalleled  suc- 
cess of  their  efforts,  we  may,  in  view  of  them,  well  ex- 
claim, in  delighted  and  grateful  wonder,  "  What  hath  God 
wrought!" 

Twenty  years  ago,  nothing  like  them  existed,  or  had 
ever  existed,  in  the  world.  But,  in  the  ripeness  of  time, 
they  seem  to  have  appeared,  as  at  the  call  of  God,  full- 
grown,  equipped,  and  instinct  with  the  spirit  of  Christian 
unity,  as  the  very  life-pulse  of  their  existence.  And  though 
but  a  few  years  have  elapsed  since  their  disclosure  in  this 
country,  the  last  Annual  Report  of  the  American  Confed- 
eration conveys  the  gratifying  intelligence  of  the  existence 
of  two  hundred  and  five  of  these  associations,  scattered  in 
every  section  of  the  land,  and  embracing  an  aggregate 
membership  of  twenty-fi.ve  thousand  young  men.  A  sim- 
ilar progress  has  been  made  in  Europe,  and  in  other  re- 
gions of  the  globe.  If,  then,  we  consider  the  local  position 
of  these  Christian  institutions,  in  the  very  heart  of  the 
great  centres  of  population  in  the  seaboard  cities  and  inland 
towns — or  the  refuge  they  provide  and  tbe  attractions  they 
extend  over  the  whole  community  of  their  own  class,  in 
their  spacious  halls,  furnished  reading  rooms,  and  growing 
libraries — or  the  missionary  work  they  are  doing  among  the 
poorer  and  more-neglected  portions  of  the  people,  the  des- 
titute children  and  the  unfortunate  outcasts  of  our  munici- 
palities— or  the  employment  they  make  of  all  the  other 
instrumentalities  for  elevating  and  evangelizing  the  society 
in  the  midst  of  which  they  are  planted — or  the  benignant 
influence  they  throw  around  strangers  and  sojourners 
coming  among  them  under  all  the  constraints  and  disabil- 
ities of  ignorance  and  want  of  acquaintance  or  associa- 
tion— or  the  barriers  which  they  interpose  to  guard  the  in- 
experienced and  tempted  against  dangers  that  might  soon 
destroy — or  the  mutual  action  and  reaction  of  their  prayers 


XII  INTRODUCTION. 

and  sympathies  and  experience,  both  in  stimulating  to  re- 
newed exertions,  and  in  guiding  to  the  methods  of  a  riper 
and  a  larger  wisdom — or  the  total  absence  of  everything 
like  sectarian  principles,  views,  and  feelings,  which  has 
thus  far  marked  their  development  —  or  the  noble  and 
world-wide  reciprocity  and  correspondence  which  the  vari- 
ous associations  throughout  the  world  sustain  with  one  an- 
other :  what  human  thought  can  measure  such  a  power  as  this 
for  doing  good,  wdiat  Christian  heart  can  fail  to  appreciate 
it  as  an  instance  of  one  of  the  nearest  approximations  to  the 
perfection  of  Christian  unity  now  existing  in  the  world. 

It  is  not,  indeed,  too  much  to  say,  that  these  associations^ 
from  their  very  nature  and  composition,  embrace  the  flower 
of  the  Christian  church  at  the  present  day,  and  that  they 
have  hitherto  been  conducted,  not  only  with  the  vigor  and 
vitality  peculiar  to  the  period  of  early  manhood,  but,  as  a 
general  rule,  with  a  prudence  and  discretion  that  might  do 
credit  to  the  very  ripest  age  and  wisdom  of  the  church. 
The  fears  of  some  have. been  dispelled,  and  the  objections 
of  6thers  have  been  refuted,  by  their  steady,  onward  course, 
pursuing  the  legitimate  objects  of  their  own  sphere,  and 
careful  not  to  trench  on  the  functions  and  prerogatives 
which  belong  to  others.  In  this  manner,  they  have  already 
attained  a  most  hopeful  and  commanding  position,  and  are 
favored  of  God  to  look  out  upon  a  prospect  of  unexampled 
future  good  and  glory. 

The  Association  of  this  .city  was  among  the  earliest 
formed  in  America,  and,  with  humble  gratitude  to  God, 
if  is  to  be  recorded,  that  though  by  no  means  so  large  in 
numbers  or  external  endowments  as  some  of  its  sister  asso- 
ciations, it  has  from  the  first  enjoyed  the  confidence  and 
Christian  regards  of  the  whole  Confederation,  and,  by  a 
constant  faith  in  the  objects  of  its  existence,  and  a  patient 
and  persevering  series  of  efibrts,  it  has  been  enabled  to 
bear  no  inconsiderable'  part  in  accomplishing  at  home  the 
work  it  was  designed  to  perform,  maintaining  its  place  in 
the  sympathies  of  the  Christian  public  around  it,  and  also 


INTRODUCTION.  XIII 

in  bringing  to  its  present  condition  of  prominence  and  use- 
fulness the  National  Confederation.  In  the  darkest  days, 
it  has  never  faltered ;  and  when  perplexity  has  stood  full 
upon  it,  God  has  raised  up  friends  to  succor  it;  and  it  has 
risen  above  all  discouragements,  stronger  and  more  resolute 
than  ever. 

The  field  which  this  Association  occupies,  being  in  the 
Federal  Metropolis  of  the  country,  is  found  to  be  one  of 
singular  importance  and  of  peculiar  trial.  For  though  the 
city  of  its  operations  cannot  compare,  either  in  wealth  or 
population,  with  many  other  leading  towns  throughout 
the  Republic,  yet  it  is,  and  must  of  necessity  be,  the  resort 
of  all  classes  of  the  people,  from  every  quarter  of  our  own^ 
land,  and,  in  fact,  from  every  nation  on  the  globe.  If, 
then,  it  be  considered  what  elements  are  brought  together 
here,  what  influences  are  continually  at  work,  what  inter- 
ests are  at  stake,  and  what  opportunities  are  thrown  open 
to  the  operation  of  such  an  agency  as  that  which  the  Associ- 
ation presents,  it  will  be  exceedingly  difficult  to  compute 
the  importance  of  its  position,  or  the  necessity  of  sustain- 
ing it.  But  the  very  fact  that  so  many  are  sojourners, 
having  no  local  ties  and  no  sense  of  .social  responsi- 
bility like  those  which  belong  to  permanent  residents — 
that,  with  a  population  at  the  present  time  of  some  65,000 
souls,  there  are  but  comparatively  few  of  what  may  be 
termed  the  wealthy  class,  while  the  manifold  and  constant 
drafts  upon  Christian  charity,  in  every  form  of  application, 
absorb  the  resources  to  which  it  might  otherwise  look  for 
assistance,  must  make  it  obvious,  at  a  single  glance,  that 
the  difficulties  of  the  Association  are  by  no  means  insignifi- 
cant. And  when  to  this  it  is  added,  that  its  labors  must  be 
carried  on  in  the  midst  of  the  most  intense  fashionable  and 
political  excitements,  and  in  the  face  of  that  peculiar  fascina- 
tion of  worldliness  which  is  to  be  found  nowhere  but  in  civil 
Metropolitan  life,  it  will  be  seen  that  all  the  inherent  difficul- 
ties of  such  a  work  must  be  greatly  enhanced  and  aggravated. 
Yet,  notwithstanding  these  considerations,  the  gracious 


XIV  TNTKODUCTION. 

hand  of  God  has  been  upon  this  enterprise ;  and  an 
amount  of  good  has  already  been  accomplished,  which,  it 
may  justly  be  said,  no  earthly  line  can  measure,  and 
which  may  be  regarded  as  the  presage  of  still  better  and 
greater  things  to  come.  Therefore,  in  fall  confidence  of 
hope,  and  in  prayerful  reliance  upon  that  providence 
which  has  prospered  them  hitherto,  the  Association,  in 
casting  about  for  new  methods  of  exemplifying  the  spirit 
of  Christianity  by  which  they  have  been  animated  from 
the  first,  as  well  as  for  new  channels  of  influence  and  use- 
fulness, to  be  superadded  to,  but  not  to  interfere  with,  those- 
already  employed,  have  undertaken  to  secure  the  material 
from  prominent  and  well-known  clergymen  of  the  diflerent 
evangelical  denominations  throughout  the  country,  and  to 
prepare  and  publish  a  volume  from  the  same,  as  a  kind  of 
first  fruit  in  this  department  of  united  Christian  labor.  It 
is  believed  that  in  this  way  the  Association  may  contribute 
something  to  the  interest  and  elevation  of  the  Union 
Christian  literature  of  the  times,  thereby  dispensing  also 
a  noble  gratification  and  a  substantial  spiritual  profit 
to  many  hundreds,  and  they  would  fain  hope  thousands, 
of  their  Christian  brethren,  in  every  portion  of  the  land. 
Should  the  circulation  of  this  volume  inure  in  any  meas- 
ure to  the  pecuniary  profit  of  the  Association,  or  tend 
to  produce  a  fund,  it  is  their  purpose  sacredly  to  apply 
it  in  a  manner  still  further  to  increase  their  facilities  for 
doing  good,  and  to  plant  themselves  upon  a  higher  plat- 
form of  Christian  fidelity  and  efiiciency.  Looking,  there- 
fore, to  the  great  Head  of  the  Church,  in  whose  cause  and 
for  whose  sake  this  enterprise  has  been  undertaken,  and 
commending  to  the  acceptance  of  their  Christian  brethren, 
of  every  name,  both  far  and  near,  this,  their  first  offering 
to  the  sacred  literature  and  the  Christian  Union  of  the  age, 
they  send  it  forth,  believing  that  it  may  be  owned  and 
prospered  of  God,  to  the  conferring  of  ceaseless  blessings 
upon  many  souls,  in  time  and  in  eternity. 

WILLIAM  T.  SMITHSOlN^. 


CONTENTS. 


EA£B. 

The  Tender  Mercy  op  G-od 1 

By  Right  Rev.  0.  P.  McIlvaine. 
The  Glory  op  Christ,  the  Christian's  Life  -        -        -    13 

By  Rev.  D.  R.  Campbell,  LL.  D. 

Christ  and  Him  Crucified,  the  Exclusive  Theme  of 
the  Pulpit 25 

By  Rev.  Linus  Parkek,  A.  M. 

The  Believer's  Privilege        -        -        -  "     -        -        -    39 

By  Rev.  E.  Ykates  Reese,  D.  D. 
Vain  Thoughts -        -    51 

By  Rev.  C.  M.  Butler,  D.  D. 

Charity 61 

By  Rev.  Edward  N.  Kirk,  D.  D. 

The  Breastplate  op  Righteousness  and  the  Helmet 

of  Saj.vation 71 

By  Rev.  G.  W.  Samson,  D.  D. 

A  Warning  to  Backsliders 85 

By  Rev.  Bishop  James  0.  Andrew,  D.  D. 
Christ  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life  -        -        -    99 

By  Rev.  P.  D.  Gurley,  D.  D. 

Individual  Moral  Influence 109 

By  Right  Rev.  James  H.  Otey,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

A  Question  and  its  Answer,  for  Young  Men      -        -  121 
By  Rev.  Lyttleton  F.  Morgan,  D.  D. 

The  New  Commandment 135. 

By  Rev.  Richard  Fuller,  D.  D. 

Progress  in  Sin -        -        -  153 

By  Rev.  John  C.  Granbery,  A.  M. 

The  Power  of  Faith 167 

By  Rev.  Charles  Minnigerode,  D.  D. 

Repentance  and  Conversion 177 

By  Rev.  Charles  H.  Read,  D.  D.^ 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

Page 

The  Prophet  and  the  King  ;  or,  a  Message  from  God  -  187 

By  Rev.  J.  H.  Cuthbert. 

Obedience  Better  than  Sacrifice 199 

By  Rev.  H.  B.  Ridgeaway,  A.  M. 

The  Strength  and  the  Weakness  of  Youth        -        -  215 

By  Rev.  Alexander  H.  Vinton,  D.  D. 

Fellow-helpers  op  the  Truth        -        -        -        -        -  227 

By  Rev.  George  C.  Baldwin,  D.  D. 

The  Evil  Affecting  the  Universe        -        -        -        -  241 

By  Rev.  Byron  Sunderland,  D.  D. 
The  Important  Choice     -------  259 

By  Right  Rev.  Thomas  M.  Clark,  D.  D. 
The  Knowledge  op  Acceptance  vmra.  Gob     .        -        -  271 

By  Rev.  William  A.  Smith,  D.  D. 

Sowing  Beside  all  Waters 303 

By  Rev.  Robert  Turnbull,  D.  D. 

The  Church  the  Pillar  and  Ground  of  the  Truth    -  315 
By  Rev.  Nicholas  Murray,  D.  D. 

Fruits  a  Test  of  Systems       -        -        -        -        -        -  825 

By  Rev.  R.  S.  Foster,  D,  D. 
The  Merely  Moral  Man -  341 

By  Rev.  J.  Lansing  Burrows,  D.  D; 

The  Attractive  Power  of  the  Cross  of  Christ  -        -  353 
By  Rev.  George  D.  Cummins,  D.  D. 

Grieving  the  Spirit _  365 

By  Rev.  B.  M.  Palmer,  D.  D. 

Christ  and  the  Believer  Inseparable  -        -        -■        -  381 
By  Rev.  J.  George  Butler. 

Eternal  Associations  Connected  with  the  Bible        -  387 
By  Rev.  William  Adams,  D.  D. 

The   Christian's   Confidence  in  Committing  his  Soul 
into  the  Hands  op  the  Kedeemer      -        .        .        .  401 
By  Rev.  Thomas  De  Witt,  D.  D. 

The  Two  Courses 419 

By  Rev.  T.  H.  Stockton,  D  D. 
The  Christian  Minister  and  his  Work    -    -        -        -  433 

By  Rev.  David  S.  Doggett,  D.  D. 

Love  the  Sum  op  Christianity 447 

By  Rev.  John  McClintock,  D.  D. 


SERMONS. 


THE    TENDEE    MERCY    OF    GOD. 


BY  RIGHT  REV.  C.  P.  McILVAINE, 

BISHOP  OP  THE  DIOCESE  OF  OHIO. 


Why  will  ye  die? — EzeMel^  xxsiii,  11. 

Such  was  the  solemn  appeal  of  the  mercy  and  patience  of  God  to 
those  whom  the  prophet  Ezekiel  was  sent  to  turn,  if  possible,  from 
their  evil  ways.  It  was  preceded  by  these  remarkable  words :  ''  Say 
unto  them,  as  I  live,  saith  the  Lord  God,  I  have  no  pleasure  in  the 
death  of  the  wicked,  but  that  the  wicked  turn  from  his  way  and  live  ; 
turn  ye,  turn  ye,  from  your  evil  ways."  And  then  comes  the  ques- 
tion, so  difficult  for  a  sinner  to  answer,  after  hearing  such  a  declara- 
tion from  God,  "  Why  xoillyc  die?'' 

Now,  there  is  no  sense  in  this  question,  if  the  death  alluded  to  be 
only  that  death  of  which  it  is  written,  "  It  is  ajipointed  unto  men  once 
to  die."  With  that,  our  will  has  nothing  to  do,  except  to  escape  its 
sting.  The  difference  between  the  sinner  saved  and  the  sinner  lost, 
in  regard  to  such  death,  is,  that  while  it  must  come  with  equal  cer- 
tainty on  both,  it  comes  to  the  first  deprived  of  its  sting,  because  his 
sin  is  pardoned ;  while  to  the  second  it  is  all  sting  and  terror,  since 
it  seals  the  state  of  his  soul  under  unpardoned  sin  and  its  condemna- 
tion forever.  To  the  first,  death  is  as  the  passage  of  the  Jordan  to 
the  people,  Israel — a  flood  that  must  be  crossed,  but  a  flood  divided. 
It  is  the  passage  out  of  the  wilderness  to  Canaan ;  the  Christian,  by 
that  path,  goes  home  to  God. 

There  is  what  the  Scriptures  call  'Uhe  second  death."     "  He  that 
overcometh  (saith  the  Lord)  shall  not  be  hurt  of  the  second  death." 
{Rev.,  ii,  11.)     This,  we  may  all  escape.     All  the  mercy  of  God  ex- 
1 


2  THE   TENDER   MERCY   OF   GOD. 

horts  us  to  escape  it.  It  was  to  open  the  way  of  escape,  that  "  God 
spared  not  his  own  Son,  hut  delivered  him  up  for  us  all."  What  is 
that  second  death  ?  We  answer,  by  a'sking  what  is  the  first  death 
appointed  to  all  ?  You  answer,  it  is  dissolution.  Yes,  but  dissolution 
of  what  ?  Of  the  body,  in  itself,  among  its  own  constituent  parts  ? 
No.  The  heart  ceases  to  beat,  while  there  may  as  yet  be  no  dissolution 
of  the  bodily  parts.  The  machine  still  holds  together,  but  it  is  dead. 
What,  then,  has  been  dissolved  ?  You  easily  answer,  the  connection 
of  the  soul  with  that  body.  The  body  thus  dead  is  a  machine  without 
a  power — a  house  without  an  inhabitant.  You  do  not  mean  that  the 
soul  departed  is  not  still  living,  nor  that  the  body  forsaken  is  not  still 
a  human  body,  but  that  the  connection  of  that  body  and  that  spirit 
is  dissolved,  whatever  each,  in  its  separate  state,  may  now  be.  Hence 
the  people  of  God,  who  are  now  emphatically  ''  alive  for  evermore," 
having  attained  to  the  blessedness  of  ''the  saints  in  light,"  are  called 
in  Scripture  ^^  tlie  dead."  They  are  "absent  from  the  body."  That 
separation  is  the  first  death. 

But  what  is  the  second?  Separation  again — dissolution,  and  that 
forever  and  ever.  The  soul,  being  immaterial,  admits  of  no  dissolu- 
tion within  itself.  It  cannot  lose  its  natural  life.  Its  intellectual 
existence  is  immortal.  But  it  is  not  such  existence  that  receives  the 
emphatic  name  of  life  in  the  Scriptures.  There,  life  and  bliss  are 
synonymous.  "  Eternal  life "  is  the  simple  designation  of  the 
heavenly  state.  "A  Oliver  of  water  of  life"  is  the  beautiful  image  of 
abounding,  satisfying,  endless  bliss.  The  Scriptures  do  not  qualify 
the  word  life,  as  applied  to  the  future  state,  by  calling  it  happy  or 
unhappy  life;  as  if  true  life  could  be  else  than  true  happiness.  To 
say  that  a  soul  departed  inherits  life,  is  in  the  Bible  to  say  that  its 
inheritance  is  incorruptible,  undefiled,  and  full  of  glory.  The  ques- 
tion then  comes,  what  is  the  soul's  happiness?  and  the  answer  is  at 
hand — GoD !  The  favor,  the  peace,  the  love,  the  communion,  of 
God — nothing  else,  nothing  less !  And  what,  then,  is  the  soul's  true 
life  ?  The  answer  is  at  hand — God  !  "  In  his  favgr  is  life."  God 
is  Light;  God  is  Love;  God  is  Life.  That  Infinite  Spirit  is  to  our 
souls  spiritual  life,  just  as  this  finite  spirit  is  to  my  body  its  natural 
life.  Separation  from  God  is  spiritual  death.  •  Separation  from  God 
forever,  in  the  misery  of  hell,  is  eternal  death — the  second  death ; 
excommunication  of  the  soul  from  God  forever — that  separation 
which  shall  be  consummated  and  sealed  when  those  words  shall  be 


THE   TENDER   MERCY   OF   GOD.  3 

lieard. from  the  throne,  ''  Dqxirf,  ye  cursed,  into  everlasting  fire" — 
the  sinner,  with  all  his  sinful  passions  and  powers  remaining,  deserted 
of  God,  left  to  himself,  to  his  own  emptiness  and  his  own  sinfulness, 
a  prey  to  his  own  passions  and  conscience  and  self-condemnation  and 
vigorous  intellect — capacities  so  large,  and  nothing  to  fill  them — 
wants  so  incessant,  so  importunate,  so  raging,  and  not  a  hope  of  any- 
thing ever  to  satisfy  them ;  and  this,  under  the  superadded  infliction 
of  the  positive  wrath  of  God.  Oh  !  that  will  be  death,  indeed ;  and 
that  is  the  death  about  which  the  question  is  asked  in  the  text, 
"  Why  will  ye  die?"  And  it  is  about  that,  brethren,  that  we  desire 
now,  affectionately,  to  speak  with  you. 

We  are  here  amidst  the  privUeges  of  the  Gospel.  Our  day  of  grace, 
our  time  to  save  our  souls,  is  fast  hastening  away.  The  first  death  is 
near.  I  speak  to  a  great  many  who  are  not  prepared  to  meet  it — 
neglecters  of  the  great  salvation  of  Christ,  their  hearts  far  away  from 
God.  Their  present  way  of  life  is  directly  towards  that  second  death. 
To  them,  nearness  to  the  grave  is  just  so  much  nearness  to  the  con- 
dition of  the  lost.  God's  long-suffering  is  all  that  keeps  them  out  of 
that  woe.  They  are  not  in  the  ark.  Its  door  is  wide  open  for  their 
entrance ;  they  heed  it  not.  The  Word  of  God  comes  to  them,  say- 
ing, "  Why  will  ye  die?"  Friends  and  brethren,  will  ye  consider 
that  question?  Will  you  follow  me,  while  I  endeavor  to  assist  you 
in  its  answer  ? 

I.  First,  then,  I  am  sure  that,  if  ye  do  thus  perish,  it  will  not  be 
in  any  degree  chargeable  on  any  deficiency  in  the  mercy  of  God ! 
How  solemnly  is  that  declared  in  the  words  which  precede  our  text ! 
"  Say  unto  them,  as  I  live,  saith  the  Lord  God,  I  have  no  pleasure  in 
the  death  of  the  wicked,  but  that  the  wicked  turn  from  his  way  and 
live."  God  vindicates  Himself  from  the  possibility  of  the  loss  of  a  soul 
being  ever  laid  to  His  charge.  He  has  no  pleasure  in  such  loss.  In 
the  strongest  possible  mode.  He  seals  that  declaration.  He  swears  by 
ll\m?>Q\^—^^  As  Hive,  saith  the  Lord  God."  On  the  contrary.  His 
most  earnest  will  is,  that  sinners  should  live.  True,  He  desires  not 
they  should  live,  except  they  '^  turn" — that  is,  except  they  forsake 
sin  and  embrace  His  service.  That  would  be  to  dishonor  Himself 
without  blessing  them.  He  desires  their  repentance,  as  not  only 
essential  to  life,  but  as  a  part  of  the  life  itself.  Not  to  turn  to  Him, 
is  not  to  live.  That  they  may  turn  and  live,  He  does  desire,  with  an 
earnestness  and  compassion  of  which  the  whole  Gospel,  and  all  the 


4  THE   TENDER   MERCY   OF   GOD. 

history  of  Redemption,  and  all  the  experience  of  His  people,  and  all 
His  wonderful  patience  with  impenitent  sinners,  are  the  impressive 
evidence.  Think  what  God  has  done  to  make  it  consistent  with  His 
holiness  and  justice,  and  the  honor  of  His  government,  to  save  you 
from  your  sins.  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God !  Consider  Him  in  His 
Eternal  Godhead ;  consider  Him  in  His  deep  humiliation  when  He 
came  in  the  nature  of  man ;  consider  Him  in  the  sacrifice  for  which 
He  took  that  nature — in  his  sufi"erings  and  death  when  He  was  made 
a  curse  for  us !  Why  such  a  sacrifice  ?  Why  that  agony,  which 
clouded  the  heavens  at  noonday,  because  the  heavens  had  never 
looked  upon  such  agony  before  ?  It  was  the  awful  payment  of  God 
for  your  redemption.  It  was  God's  wonderful  grace,  toiling,  in  the 
greatness  of  its  strength  and  the  wonder  of  its  love,  to  open  a  way 
by  which  you  might  turn  unto  Him  and  live.  It  was  God  writing, 
in  the  blood  of  that  great  propitiation,  the  declaration  of  our  text, 
"  As  Hive,  I  have  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the  wicked." 

But  we  lead  you  to  another  view  of  the  same  emphatic  truth.  In 
the  second  Epistle  of  Peter,  there  is  a  prediction  that,  in  the  latter 
days,  there  would  arise  '.'scoffers/'  scofiing  at  the  promise  of  the 
coming  of  the  Lord  to  judge  the  world,  and  saying,  "  Where  is  the 
promise  of  His  coming,  for  all  things  continue  as  they  were  from  the 
beginning  ?  "  Because  they  could  see  no  signs  indicating  the  changes 
to  accompany  that  awful  day,  they  would  infer  that  its  promise  would 
fail.  But  the  Apostle  gives  another  reason.  The  promise  of  that 
awful  day  is  only  delayed,  not  forgotten.  And  why  delayed?  The 
Apostle  answers  :  "  The  Lord  is  long-sufiering  to  iis-ward,  not  willing 
that  any  should  perish,  but  that  all  should  come  to  repentance." 
Thus  the  flood  was  determined'  in  the  days  of  Noah.  It  was  certainly 
to  come.  TTie  Pairiarch  was  sent  to  warn  the  world  that  they  might 
repent  before  it  came  and  took  them  all  away.  But  many  long  years 
yet  elapsed,  and  all  things  continued  as  they  had  been.  No  signs  ap- 
peared of  such  a  judgment  approaching.  Doubtless  there  were  scoffers 
then,  who  set  it  down  to  the  failure  of  the  promise.  But  the  Scriptures 
tell  us  it  was  only  "  the  long-suffering  of  God  "  which  "  waited  in  the 
days  of  Noah."  So  does  that  same  long-suffering  of  God  wait  in 
these  days,  that  sinners  * "  may  come  to  repentance."  And  such  is 
God's  own  account  of  the  present  delay  of  that  great  and  awful  judg- 
ment, when  all  that  are  unholy  must  be  unholy  still,  and  all  that  are 
without  the  ark  of  peace  must  so  remain  excommunicate  forever. 


THE   TENDER    MERCY   OF   GOD.  O 

Each  day,  each  hour,  of  the  continuance  of  this  ungodly  world  is 
simply  a  gift  of  the  forbearance  of  God.  It  is  the  impressive  evidence 
of  His  declaration,  "  I  have  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the  wicked, 
but  that  he  turn  unto  Me  and  live." 

But,  my  friends,  if  it  be  ''  the  mere  long-sufiFering  of  God  "  towards 
a  sinful  world  that  explains  the  delay  of  its  destruction,  what  else 
explains  the  fact  that  each  of  you,  who  are  not  God's  servants,  giving 
no  heed  to  his  ways,  and  denying  him  your  hearts,  are  not  cut  down? 
Why  do  you  yet  live  ?  Why  were  you  raised  up  from  the  borders 
of  the  grave,  when  once  you  were  there  ?  Why  is  your  day  of  grace 
lengthened  out  ?  Is  not  the  condemnation  of  a  broken  law  already 
upon  you  ?  Why,  then,  is  its  execution  delayed  ?  Have  you  not 
sinned  enough  to  merit  the  wrath  of  God  ?  Has  not  the  barren  fig- 
tree  been  barren  long  enough  in  God's  vineyard,  in  spite  of  all  that 
has  been  done  for  it,  to  make  it  worthy  to  be  accounted  a  cumberer 
of  the  ground,  and  to  be  cut  down  and  cast  into  the  fire  ?  Why, 
then,  is  it  allowed  still  to  stand,  and  why  is  it  still  plied  with  efforts 
to  make  it  fruitful  ?  There  is  but  one  answer.  My  dear  friend,  yon 
are  not  forever  lost,  you  are  spared  as  yet,  simply  because  God  is 
long-suffering  towards  you.  And  could  you  see,  as  He  sees,  how  you 
have  treated  that  long-suffering,  you  would  intensely  wonder  that  it 
could  have  borne  with  you  so  long.  Your  whole  continuance  of  life — 
every  hour  of  it,  in  your  present  impenitence  and  disobedience — is 
just  the  strong  attestation  that  God  desires  not  your  death,  but  does 
desire  your  salvation.  And  thus  we  are  sure  that,  if  you  do  finally 
perish,  there  will  be  no  ground  to  charge  it,  in  any  degree,  upon  the 
compassion  of  God,  as  if  there  were  any  failure  there.  The  responsi- 
bility will  be  all  your  own.  You  will  have  none  to  reproach  but 
yourself. 

II.  Let  me  add,  that  if  you  finally  perish,  it  will  not  be  because 
you  have  not  had  presented  to  you  every  warning,  every  affectionate 
invitation,  every  powerful  and  exalted  motive,  which  ought  to  per- 
suade a  rational  being  to  turn  unto  God  and  live.  "  The  wages  of 
sin  is  death ;  the  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life  through  Jesus  Christ." 
There  is  a  world  of  motive  and  persuasion  and  warning  in  those  few 
words.  Can  you  conceive  of  anything  that  ought  to  weigh  with  man, 
and  govern  his  life,  if  the  solemn  truths  therein  uttered  should  not? 
Sin's  awful  wages ;  God's  great  gift !  And  when  it  is  considered 
how  you  have  had  those  wages  of  death  and  that  gift  of  life  placed 


6  THE   TENDER   MERCY   OF    GOD. 

before  you  in  every  form  of  awfulness  and  of  preciousness,  of  solem- 
nity and  of  tenderness,  of  God's  entreating  and  persuading,  of  a 
Saviour's  love  beseeching  and  exhorting,  line  upon  line — persuading 
you,  waiting  for  you,  wrestling  with  you — the  heavens  bowed,  that 
God  may  come  near  to  you,  to  receive  you  when  you  turn ;  His  prov- 
idence added  to  His  written  Word,  for  the  stronger  argument ;  aflSic- 
tions  sent  to  show  you  the  emptiness  of  the  world  and  the  desolation 
of  your  state,  that  your  eyes  might  be  opened  to  your  need  of  the 
hope  set  before  you  in  Christ ;  oh,  when  we  ask  what  more  could 
infinite  wisdom,  and  goodness,  and  compassion,  do  for  you,  to  turn 
your  minds  and  hearts  to  God,  you  mvist  be  ready  to  testify,  that  if 
you  die,  it  must  be  in  spite  of  all  that  should  have  moved  and  per- 
suaded a  rational  being. 

III.    Why  will  ye  die?     We  have  said  it  will  not  be  for  want  of 
inducement.     We  now  add,  it  will  not  be  for  want  of  conviction. 

No  doubt,  among  those  whom  I  am  now  particularly  addressing,  there 
are  many  degrees  of  light,  of  impression,  and  of  belief,  from  the  man 
who  has  scarcely  any  religious  creed  at  all,  to  him  whose  belief  of  the 
truth  almost  persuades  him  to  yield  himself  to  its  government.  But, 
in  all  this  variety,  I  doubt  if  there  is  the  man  who  does  not  know, 
and  in  his  conscience  acknowledge,  that  were  he  to  follow  the  path, 
not  only  of  the  highest  obligation,  but  of  the  surest  wisdom  and  hap- 
piness, he  would  live  a  devoted  follower  of  Christ.  Ah!  under 
many  an  exterior  of  indifi"erence,  and  even  of  professed  unbelief, 
where  it  would  seem  as  if  a  serious  thought  of  God  could  never  dwell, 
how  often  is  a  voice  heard,  in  the  secret  of  the  soul,  saying,  Alas, 
how  poor  the  man  that  is  not  at  peace  with  God  !  The  true  Chris- 
tian !  what  a  precious  hope  is  his !  A  dear  and  venerable  friend  of 
mine*  once  told  me  that  he  was  walking  with  the  celebrated  mathe- 
•  matician,  Button,  who  was  an  infidel,  when  they  passed  a  dog,  and 
the  unbeliever  exclaimed,  "  Would  I  were  that  dog ! "  Thoughts  of  a 
judgment  to  come,  however  denied,  haunted  him.  Much  more  do 
careless  men,  who  know  that  if  the  Gospel  be  truer  they  are  without 
hope,  when  they  see  a  consistent  Christian  going  on  his  way  to  death 
and  eternity  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  glorious  hope,  and  enduring  the 
trials  of  the  present  lifq,  uplifted  by  the  expectation  of.  the  heavenly 
inheritance,  often  wish  they  were  such  as  he.     Oh  !  no,  my  friends. 


*The  late  Olinthus  Gregory,  LL.  D.,  of  England. 


THE   TENDER   MERCY  OP   GOD.  7 

should  you  die  that  second  death,  and  the  question  be  asked  you, 
amid  your  hopeless  sorrows  and  woe,  ichy  ycni  died? — why,  wheu 
there  had  been  such  salvation  offered,  and  such  a  Saviour  to  flee  to,  and 
such  warnings  and  invitations  from  God  to  persuade  you  ? — you  will 
not  answer  that  it  was  because  you  needed  conviction  of  the  incom- 
parable wisdom  of  being  a  follower  of  Christ. 

IV.  Nor  will  it  be,  with  some  at  least,  that  there  was  never  a  sea- 
son in  your  present  life  when  you  were  so  far  moved  by  the  claims  and 
interests  of  religion  as  to  suppose  the  time  of  your  becoming  the  true 
followers  of  Christ  would  some  day  arrive,  and  that  all  you  wanted  was 
a  little  more  time  to  advance  in  feelings  and  impressions  which  you 
thought  would  finally  ripen  into  the  reality  of  godliness.  I  am  not 
delivering  what  I  know  by  the  private  history  of  any  of  you.  I  am 
speaking  from  a  general  knowledge  and  observation.  Are  there  none 
here  who,  although  their  present  state  affords  no  promise  of  any 
growth  in  grace,  can  tell  of  times,  under  the  solemn  dealings  of  the 
Word  of  God  with  their  souls — when  perhaps  they  had  been  brought 
low  in  sickness,  and  seemed  near  to  death — or  when  some  other 
afflicting  providence  had  softened  their  hearts,  and  drawn  a  curtain  of 
darkness  over  all  their  earthly  hopes,  and  had  written  vanity  wherever 
they  looked — and  when  it  seemed  to  them  that  a  lesson  had  been 
taught  which  they  could  never  forget,  and  impressions  received  which 
they  could  never -lose,  so  that  they  felt  assured  tl^ey  would  go  on 
from  that  time  to  get  more  weaned  from  the  world,  more  drawn  to 
God,  and  before  long  would  confess  Christ  before  men  ?  Alas  !  how 
little  they  knew  of  their  own  hearts !  Who  can  trust  to  the  perma- 
nency of  such  impressions,  unless  they  seek,  in  watchfulness  and 
prayer,  their  protection  and  renewal.  Little  did  they  suppose  with 
what  power  old  habits  of  worldliness  and  indifference  would  struggle 
to  regain  their  old  mastery,  as  soon  as  health  should  return,  or  the 
wounds  made  by  affliction  should  heal.  Where  now  are  those  impres- 
sions ?  What  improvement  has  been  made  of  those  precious  influ- 
ences of  the  Spirit  of  God  upon  their  hearts  ?  Have  they  gone  on 
since,  as  they  once  expected,  getting  nearer  and  nearer  the  Kingdom  ? 
Is  it  not  now  more  difficult  than  ever  to  arouse  them  to  make  effort 
for  their  salvation  ?  What  deafness,  what  blindness,  what  indiffer- 
ence, is  this  that  has  now  possession  of  them,  after  what  they  were 
once  made  to  see  and  realize  ?  Ah  !  you  may  perish  in  this  state ; 
and  by  and  by,  voices  will  be  heard  in  the  home  of  the  lost,  saying 


8  THE   TENDER   MERCY   OF   GOD. 

with  unutterable  lamentation,  "  the  harvest  is  past,  the  summer  is 
ended,  and  we  are  not  saved ;  "  and  those  voices  may  be  yours — your 
"  weeping  and  wailing."  But  when  you  shall  say,  in  that  bitterness 
of  despair,  %chi/  did  we  die  ?  you  will  bear  your  testimony  that  it  was 
not  because  the  Spirit  of  God  did  never  strive  with  your  hearts,  to 
lead  you  to  the  salvation  of  Christ,  nor  because  He  did  not  make  on 
your  minds  impressions  which  but  for  your  neglect  would  have 
ripened  into  life  eternal.  The  mercy  of  God  will  not  have  to  bear 
the  blame  of  your  being  tormented  in  that  flame. 

And  now  we  ask  again,  ''  Why  will  ye  die  ?  "  And  we  answer 
by  stating  what  is  operating  upon  you  directly  towards  that  result. 

1.  A  latent,  insidious  iinhelief- — I  say  unbelief,  not  infidelity ;  for 
the  latter  expresses  a  state  of  mind  more  positive  and  settled  than 
such  as  I  am  speaking  of.  We  mean  an  unbelief  so  secret  that  it  may 
have  hardly  ever  recognised  itself,  afraid  to  call  itself  by  its  proper 
name,  and  ready  indignantly  to  disown  every  approach  to  what  you 
call  infidelity.  Allow  me  to  illustrate  by  putting  a  question.  When 
the  Word  of  God  is  faithfully  declared  to  you  from  the  pulpit,  and 
you  hear  of  the  only  way  of  salvation,  and  what  must  be  your  everlast^ 
ing  heritage  if  you  are  not  found  therein,  and  when  you  know  that  what 
you  hear  is  just  the  plain  testimony  of  the  Bible,  does  there  not  arise 
in  -your  minds  such  thoughts  as  these :  "  What  if  all  should  prove  un- 
true ?  Perhaps,  after  all,  there  may  be  no  such  penalty,  or  no  need 
of  such  a  method  of  escape.  God  desires  not  our  death,  and  may  He 
not  at  last  be  willing  to  save  us,  whether  we  turn  unto  Him  or  not  ?  " 
Such  thoughts  may  be  in  your  minds  only  as  a  timid,  latent  suggestion, 
pretending  to  no  evidence,  and  which  dare  not  stand  out  and  be  ex- 
amined ;  but,  nevertheless,  do  you  not  entertain  them  ?  Have  they  not 
their  influence  ?  Is  not  their  insidious  whisper  a  magic  spell,  that  turns 
away  in  a  great  degree  the  force  of  the  solemn  appeals  of  the  Word 
of  God,  and  keeps  your  mind  at  ease  in  your  impenitence  ?  Do  you 
not  allow  and  cherish  such  thoughts,  because  of  their  poor  consolation, 
while  you  never  examine  them,  because  you  fear  t©  test  their  real 
worth  ? 

We  apprehend  there  is  much  of  this  state  of  mind  in  our  congr<i- 
gations — an  underground,  unformed,  stealthy,  whispering  unbelief; 
which  does  not  positively  deny,  but  insinuates  a  doubting  question, 
when  it  dare  not  venture  an  open  denial ;  which  has  no  aim  at  the 
discovery  of  truth,  but  simply  to  keep  the  mind  at  ease  under  tho 


THE   TENDER   MERCY   OF   GOD.  9 

troublesome  dealings  of  the  truth.  A  great  deal  of  the  inefficacy  of 
the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  is  to  be  accounted  for  by  this  paralyzing 
influence. 

2.  Another  cause  that  answers  the  question,  tchy  will  ye  die  ?  is 
found  in  the  grievous  want  of  serious  consideration. 

When  you  have  an  important  earthly  interest  at  stake,  you  con- 
sider, you  examine,  you  would  be  afraid  to  risk  a  decision  without 
mature  consideration.  But  how  is  it  when  the  matter  in  question  is 
not  earthly,  but  heavenly;  not  for  a  year,  but  for  everlasting;  your 
souls  at  stake,  and  the  decision  lying  between  such  issues  as  the 
endless  peace  of  God  and  His  endless  wrath  ?  Oh !  when  do  you 
consider  so  little ;  what  interest  are  you  so  averse  to  considering  at 
all;  what  subject  is  dismissed  from  your  thoughts  so  hastily;  on 
what  question  of  welfare  are  you  so  easily  persuaded  to  believe  that 
all  will  go  well  ?  A.  sermon  listened  to  on  Sunda"y ;  a  few  scattered 
recollections  that  there  is  a  God,  and  a  soul,  and  death,  and  eternity; 
a  few  languid  expectations  of  some  time  or  other  attending  more  ear- 
nestly to  these  things — and  that  is  all !  No  earnest  endeavor  solemnly 
to  realize  your  state,  your  duty,  your  prospect,  your  danger,  your 
sin,  what  is  coming,  and  how  little  you  can  count  on  what  a  day  may 
bring  forth,  with  all  the  motives  with  which  the  mercy  of  God 
should  move  your  hearts !  Oh,  how  wonderful !  But  is  it  won- 
derful that  the  Word  of  God  has  so  little  power,  when  it  is  so  little 
considered  ?  Will  it  be  at  all  wonderful  if  in  this  way  you  should 
never  come  to  repentance,  but  die  just  as  you  are,  out  of  Christ — no 
matter  how  open  the  door  of  that  ark,  all  the  while  you  were  here, 
or  how  loudly  the  warning  and  invitations  of  the  grace  of  God  may 
have  been  always  sounded  in  your  ears  ? 

.  3.  I  might  go  on  to  give  more  reasons,  such  as  the  foregoing, 
which,  in  case  you  die  the  second  death,  will  help  you  to  say  why  you 
died.  But  there  is  one  which  lies  at  the  bottom  of  all,  and,  when 
told,  tells  all ;  and  with  this  we  conclude.  It  is  found  in  the  words 
preceding  the  text :  "  I  have  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the  wicked, 
but  that  he  turn  unto  Me  and  live.  Turn  ye,  turn  ye,  for  why  will  ye 
die."  That  "  twn  ye,"  so  inseparably  connected  with  escape  from 
that  death ;  that  certainty  that,  however  God  desires  not  your  death, 
you  cannot  live,  except  you  turn  unto  Him ;  and  then  your  so  well 
knowing  that  to  turn  unto  God  means  no  mere  incidental  outside 
change,  but  a  revolution  of  your  whole  inward  life ;  not  the  mere 


10  THE   TENDER   MERCY   OF   GOD. 

formal  obedience  or  religious  ceremonial,  but  a  turning  in  heart,  in 
habitual  affections,  in  renouncing  inward  sin,  inward  worldliness, 
with  all  that  keeps  you  from  holiness  of  heart ;  yes,  the  knowledge 
that  the  whole  basis  of  the  Christian  character  is  in  such  turning — ■ 
this  it  is  which  answers  the  question,  tohy  you  will  die.  Take 
away  that  essential  union  of  turning  unto  God  now,  and  living  with 
Grod  hereafter  "and  forever;  convince  men  that  they  could  be  saved 
without  it,  by  only  conforming  themselves  to  some  mere  ceremonial 
service,  added  to  a  decent  moral  life,  then  how  wide  the  way  of 
salvation,  and  how  easy  to  persuade  men  to  go  in  thereat,  and  not 
die  !  What  makes  the  gate  of  life  so  straight,  and  the  way  so  nar- 
row, what  accounts  for  it  that  so  few  there  be  that  go  in  thereat,  is 
the  simple  necessity  of  such  a  conversion  of  heart,  such  an  inward 
religion  of  holiness,  such  an  inward  and  spiritual  reality  of  life,  above 
the  world,  and  sustained  by  daily  grace  from  Christ,  obtained  by 
daily  prayer  of  heart.  All  this  explains  the  phenomenon  that  so 
many  will  die.  It  is  this  that  accounts  for  all  that  strange  unwilling- 
ness to  consider,  of  which  we  spoke — and  all  that  strong  disposition 
to  put  off  the  service  of  G-od,  while  its  absolute  necessity  is  fully  ac- 
knowledged ;  this  it  is  that-  accounts  for  the  various  excuses  which 
men  invent  to  keep  themselves  at  ease  in  their  sins,  the  earnestness 
with  which  such  excuses  are  held,  and  the  infatuation  which  would 
fain  believe  them  to  have  some  justifying  importance.  But  what 
shall  toe  do,  who  are  sent  with  the  messages  of  God  ?  Shall  we  apol- 
ogize for  this  great  necessity  ?  Shall  we  attempt  a  compromise  be- 
tween the  sinner's  heart  and  the  requirements  of  God  ?  Shall  we 
hide  or  diminish  what  His  Word  declares  you  must  do  to  be  saved  ? 
Shall  we  conceal  that  between  the  will  of  the  sinner  and  the  holy 
will  of  God  there  is  such  essential  opposition,  an  opposition  which 
accounts  for  all  this  vast  procession  of  immortal  souls  going  ^down  to 
the  second  death,  when  God  desires  not  their  death,  and  when  such 
a  Saviour  and  such  salvation  is  provided  for  them  ?  Oh  !  no ;  that 
opposition  of  the  sinner's  will  to  the  will  and  ways  of  God  is  one  of 
the.  great  truths  we  have  to  publish.  It  shows  how  far  that  spiritual 
death,  of  which  the  second  death  is  but  a  consummation,  has  already 
the  dominion.  It  shows  how  great  the  spiritual-  change  which  your 
hearts  need,  and  how  earnestly  you  should  seek  the  power  of  God  to 
make  it.  It  is  exactly  what  the  Saviour  declared  to  precisely  such 
hearts  :  "  Ye  will  not  come  unto  me,  that  ye  might  have  life."     Ye 


THE  TENDER   MERCY   OF   GOD.  11 

mill  not !  Plan's  will  is  the  difficulty.  There  is  a  strong  controversy 
between  the  will  of  the  unrenewed  heart  and  the  will  of  God.  One 
or  the  other  must  give  way,  if  you  are  ever  to  be  saved.  And  which 
shall  it  be  ?  Shall  God  repent,  or  man  ?  Shall  God  surrender  His 
law,  which  pronounces  that  without  holiness  no  man  shall  see  His 
face ;  or  will  man  give  up  his  aversion  to  holiness,  and  seek  it  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  of  God  ?  The  whole  responsibility  is  with  yourselves. 
Toxi  must  decide  whether  to  be  saved  or  lost.  All  things  are  ready 
on  God's  part,  only  waiting  the  readiness  on  your  part ;  God's  im-" 
portunate  calls  and  entreaties  are  sounding  in  your  ears  :  "  Turn  ye, 
turn  ye."  "  Wherefore  do  ye  spend  money  for  that  which  is  not 
bread,  and  your  labor  for  that  which  satisfieth  not?  Incline  your  ear 
and  come  unto  Me ;  hear,  and  your  soul  shall  live,  and  I  will  make  an 
everlasting  covenant  with  you."  Nothing  can  be  more  earnest, 
more  compassionate,,  more  encouraging.  It  is  a  voice  from  the  very 
fountain  of  life  and  the  very  throne  of  grace.  It  is  the  tender 
love  of  Jesus,  now  exalted  to  be  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour,  to  give 
repentance  and  remission  of  sins,  and  saying  to  every  poor  sinner, 
coTtie  to  Me — /  loill  give  you  rest.  Oh  !  my  friend,  how  all  the  inter- 
ests of  an  immortal  soul,  how  all  the  solemnities  of  a  judgment  day, 
how  all  that  is  terrible  in  the  condition  of  a  soul  lost  forever — how 
the  whole  preeiousness  of  the  peace  and  salvation  that  is  in  Christ 
Jesus — how  all  are  at  this  moment  assembled  about  you,  and  plead- 
ing that  you  will  hear,  and  turn,  and  live  ! 

God's  mercy  will  meet  you,  as  soon  as  your  hearts  shall  seek  Him. 
The  hand  of  His  grace  will  be  ready  to  help  you,  as  soon  as  you  in 
your  weakness  shall  be  ready  to  take  it.  There  was  once  a  poor, 
wandering,  beggared  sinner,  who  had  been  awakened  to  a  sense  of  his 
guilt  and  wretchedness  and  folly.  He  thought  of  the  servants  in  his 
father's  house  whence  he  had  wandered,  and  compared  his  condition 
with  theirs.  He  came  to  a  stand — he  resolved  to  return.  "  I  will  go 
to  my  father."  It  was  a  great  way  he  had  to  go,  for  he  had  gone 
"into  a  far  country;"  but,  far  as  it  was,  he  was  resolved  he  looidd 
turn  and  go  to  his  father.  No  doubt  he  expected  to  encounter  a 
stern,  offended  father,  who  would  bring  up  all  his  guilt  against 
him,  and  be  exceeding  cold  and  distant  to  him ;  and  the  best  he  ex- 
pected to  get,  by  repentance  and  entreaty,  was  to  be  allowed  to  take 
the  place  of  a  "  hired  servant."  To  be  taken  back  as  a  son,  he  had 
no  idea  even  of  asking.     He  set  out  on  his  journey.     And  "when 


12  THE   TENDEK   MERCY   OF   GOD. 

he  was  yet  a  great  way  off,"  (saith  the  Scripture,)  his  father  saw 
him.    Yes !    For  he  was  on  the  watch,  patiently,  unweariedly,  looking 
out  for  the  return  of  his  son.     Now  at  last  he  saw  him  coming — as  yet 
a  great  way  off— all  miserable,  degraded,  beggared,  and  guilty.     And 
he  ran  to  meet  that  repenting  son — "  he  had  compassion  on  him,  and 
fell  on  his  neck  and  kissed  him" — and  the  son,  scarce  able  to  speak, 
says :  "  Father,  I  have  sinned — I  am  not  worthy  to  be  called  thy  son." 
The  father  looks  not  at  his  unworthiness,  but  his  repentance — he  has 
turned  unto  me,  he  shall  be  my  son.     "  Bring  forth  the  best  robe  and 
put  it  on  him,  and  put  a  ring  on  his  hand,  and  shoes  on  his  feet ;  " 
and  let  there  be  joy  in  all  my  house — "  for  this  my  son  was  dead, 
and  is  alive  again — was  lost,  and  is  found."     So  is  there  joy  in 
heaven,  with  God  and  all  the  angels  of  God,  when  one  sinner  re- 
penteth.     Such  is  the  Gospel!      So  does  the  compassion  of  God 
come  out  to  meet,  to  embrace,  to  take  by  the  hand,  to  help,  to  com- 
fort, to  accept  and  save,  any  and  every  soul  of  man  that  will  so  turn 
unto  God,  seeking  His  mercy  by  the  one  only  way,  the  one  only  Me- 
diator, Jesus  Christ.    What  a  wonderful  declaration  of  grace  is  that — 
"  I  WILL  ABUNDANTLY  PARDON."     Mark  its  Connection — "  Let  the 
wicked  forsake  his  way,  and  the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts,  and 
let  him  turn  unto  the  Lord,  and  He  will  have  mercy  upon  him,  and 
unto  our  God,  for  He  will  ahundan% pardonJ'     "Where  sin  hath 
abounded,  grace  doth  much,  more  abound,"  through  Jesus  Christ. 
Do  we  wonder  at  a  pardon  that  is  so  abounding  and  so  free,  that 
though  our  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  are  washed  away  as  white  as  snow, 
as  soon  as  with  a  broken  spirit  we  make  the  righteousness  of  Chirst 
our  refuge  ?     The  answer  is :  "  As  the  heavens  are  higher  than  the 
earth,  so  are  my  ways  higher  than  your  ways,  and  my  thoughts  than 
your  thoughts."     Such  is  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  such 
i-ts  open  door ;  such  its  full  and  free  salvation ;  so  does  it  wait  to  bless 
you  J  so  docs  it  entreat  you  to.  come  and  live.     Oh  !  whi/  then  7viUi/e 
die?  All  this  grace  rejected;  all  of  it,  because  rejected,  so  fearfully 
increasing  your  guilt,  and  the  bitterness  of  your  cup,"  and  "the  terror 
of  the  Lord."    It  will  be  a  fearful  thing  for  them  of  Sodom  to  appear 
before  the  judgment  seat  of  God.     But  it  will  be  more  tolerable  for 
them,  nevertheless,  than  for  us,  who  have  a  Gospel  which  they  had 
not,  if  that  Gospel  be  not  obeyed,  if  its  grace  be  not  accepled. 


^a^'T^'^c^^i^i- 


^Lc/.X_^ 


MW\^\ 


THE  GLORY  OF  CHRIST,  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  LIFE. 


By  Rev.  D.  R.  CAMPBELL,  LL.  D., 

OF  THE  BAPTIST  CHURCH,  AND  PRESIDENT  OF  GEORGETOWN  COLLEGE,  KENTUCKY. 


To  me  to  live  is  Christ. — Philippians,  i,  21. 

Were  Christians  to  live  the  life  enjoined  in  the  Scriptures,  they 
would  doubtless  still  be  "  a  wonder  to  many/'  "  a  spectacle  unto  the 
world,  and  to  angels,  and  to  men."  Their  relations,  their  duties,  theii 
aims,  their  plans,  and  their  spirit,  as  there  depicted,  are  so  out  of  the 
ordinary  course  of  things,  as  to  stand  in  striking  contrast  with  those 
of  the  rest  of  mankind.  Subjects  of  a  Kingdom,  whose  supreme 
power  is  over  the  heart,  whose  first  principle  is  self-renunciation, 
whose  reigning  spirit  is  love,  whose  steady  aim  is  conquest,  whose 
principal  weapon  is  truth,  and  whose  best  hopes  all  centre  in  another 
world,  they  present  a  strange  anomaly  to  the  unrenewed  world  around 
them. 

Just  such  an  anomaly,  however,  Christians  are  designed  to  be. 
They  are  to  be  in  the  world,  but  not  of  it.  By  their  example  and 
exertions,  they  are  to  seek  to  enlighten,  to  reclaim,  and  to  save  it. 
Under  just  conceptions  of  the  new  and  heavenly  life  of  which  they 
have  themselves  been  made  the  subjects,  acts  of  obedient  gratitude 
are  to  mark  their  career  during  the  whole  period  of  their  earthly 
existence.  The  glory  of  Christ  in  the  conquest  of  the  world,  by  its 
subjection  to  the  principles  and  spirit  which  so  happily  control  and 
bless  themselves,  becomes  an  object  of  such  earnest  and  absorbing 
desire,  as  to  give  sobriety  and  naturalness  to  the  language  of  my  text, 
as  the  appropriate  language  of  every  true  Christian. 

The  glory  of  Christ,  the  Christian's  life,  is  the  theme,  to  the  con- 
sideration of  which  we  invite  attention. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  we  invite  attention  to  the  grounds  on 
which  Christians  make  the  glory  of  Christ  their  life.     To  make  the 


14  THE   GLORY  OP   CHRIST, 

glory  of  Christ  one's  life,  in  its  widest  scriptural  sense,  is  the  same 
as  to  live  supremely  for  His  honor  in  advancing  His  cause  in  the 
world.  For  thus  living,  Christians  have  the  strongest  reasons.  Their 
devotion  to  Christ  is  not  blind ;  their  services  are  not  superstitious ; 
.their  sacrifices  proceed  not  from  the  mere  lashings  of  conscience. 
The  whole  of  their  religion  proceeds  on  principles  of  reason  and 
gratitude,  and  is,  in  all  its  details,  a  most  "  reasonable  service." 

That  their  very  being  is  derived  and  dependent,  is  a  conception  so 
intuitive  and  distinct  as  to  become  an  authoritative  conviction  of  their 
minds.  Equally  distinct  and  authoritative  is  the  additional  and  in- 
separable conviction,  that  such  beings  owe  the  perpetual  honor  and 
services  of  the  whole  of  the  powers  of  their  bodies  and  minds  to  their 
Creator  and  Preserver.  Christians  distinctly  and  joyously  recognise 
the  claims  set  up  for  Christ,  in  the  Scriptures,  on  this  score.  They 
apprehend,  as  no  others  can,  such  declarations  as  these :  "  All  things 
were  created  by  Him;"  "by  Him  all  things  consist;"  all  things 
were  created  "for  Him."  The  realization  of  the  relations  and  obli- 
gations involved  in  such  inspired  statements  is  peculiarly  congenial 
to  their  renewed  inclinations,  and,  consequently,  they  delight  to 
dwell  upon  them,  and  to  render  the  appropriate  returns  in  lives  of 
becoming  consecration. 

•At  this  point,  the  delight  of  Christians  becomes  greatly  enhanced 
by  the  contemplation  of  the  wonderful  powers  and  adaptations  with 
which  Christ,  as  their  Creator,  has  endowed  them.  Man  is  "  fear- 
fully and  wonderfully  made."  A  glance  at  his  mental  capacities  will 
evince  this.  Conceive  of  his  power  of  thought,  by  which  the  per- 
fections and  the  ways  of  the  Eternal  become  his  daily  study — his 
power  of  perception,  by  which,,  through  the  appointed  portals  of  his 
physical  habitation,  he  contemplates  nature,  and  attempts  to  trace 
and  delineate  nature's  Grod— his  power  of  imagination,  by  which 
there  is  not  a  point  in  space  or  duration,  or  an  object  in  the  universe, 
which  is  absolutely  beyond  the  range  of  his  mighty  sweep — his  power 
of  memory,  by  which  he  can  incorporate  the  recorded  past  with  his 
own  living  present — his  power  of  reasoning,  by  which  he  takes  the 
material  furnished  by  all  the  o.ther  powers,  and  renders  it  practically 
valuable  amid  life's  necessities,  present  and  future — his  power  of 
conscience,  by  which  there  is  a  something  ever  within  him  that  ever 
speaks  of  God,  of  right  and  wrong,  of  accountability,  and  of  retribu- 
tion.    Conceive,  too,  of  his  emotional  nature — his  power  to  feel,  by 


THE   christian's   LIFE.  15 

which  he  can  admire,  wonder,  and  adore,  by  which  he  can  love, 
sympathize,  or  even  sorrow.  How  much  of  life  is  made  up  of  the 
sensibilities  !  Without  such  a  nature,  the  intellect  of  an  archangel 
would  be  a  dreary  and  desolate  possession.  Add  to  all  these  his 
power  of  will,  by  which,  under  his  perceptions  and  emotions,  he  goes 
forth,  amid  life's  struggles,  to  grapple  with  the  stern  resistances  of 
his  lot,  and  to  perform  with  success  the  diversified  duties  he  owes  to 
God  and  man.  When  all  these  constitutional  endowments  are  con- 
templated, the  conviction  that  they  are  from  His  creative  hand,  "  by 
whom  are  all  things,"  and  "  for  whom  are  all  things,"  constrains  the 
Christian,  from  a  feeling  of  conscious  right  and  of  profound  gratitude, 
to  place  them  all,  with  all  their  capabilities,  on  the  altar  of  Christian 
duty.  Christ's  by  creation  and  preservation,  the  feeling  is  impera- 
tive that  they  should  all  be  held  for  Him,  and  be  expended  for  His 
glory. 

The  disposition  of  Christians  to  consecrate  all  their  powers  to 
Christ,  and  make  Him  their  life,  is  greatly  strengthened  by  the  con- 
templation of  His  own  perfections.  By  the  constitution  of  the  human 
mind,  we  are  made  to  admire  and  honor  grandeur  of  intellect  and  of 
character.  In  Him,  these  exist  in  the  most  absolute  perfection.  All 
that  we  behold  of  finite  grandeur  or  excellency  is  but  a  feeble  emana- 
tion from  Him,  as  its  original  and  inexhaustible  source.  Is  there 
sublimity  or  grandeur  in  the  awful  storm  or  desolating  tempest  ?  It 
is  but  the  breath  of  His  omnipotence.  Is  there  cause'for  admiration 
in  the  statesmanship  that  adjusts  the  causes,  and  reduces  to  order 
the  convulsions  of  nations  ?  It  but  faintly  images  the  omniscient  wis- 
dom of  Him  who  ruleth  the  universe.  Is  there  occasion  for  awe  in 
the  presence  of  that  integrity  that  confronts  unmoved  the  aggres- 
sions of  national  corruption  ?  How  feebly  it  represents  the  inflexible 
purity  of  Him  who  confronts  and  controls  the  corruptions  of  men  and 
devils.  Is  there  something  really  grand  in  the  benevolence  of  How- 
ard or  Paul  ?  What  is  it,  when  compared  with  His,  whose  inspired 
designation  is  "  Love  ?  "  If  grandeur  of  mere  human  intellect  or 
character  so  attracts  us,  and  involuntarily  secures  our  homage,  how 
can  the  enlightened  Christian  fail  to  delight  in  Him  who  is  the  em- 
bodiment and  the  source  of  every  conceivable  excellency  and  perfec- 
tion ! 

But  these  perfections  not  only  exist  in  Christ;  they  have  all  been 
generously  exerted  to  furnish  man  with  every  blessing  that  cheers 


16  THE   GLORY  OF   CHRIST, 

liis  existence.  How  rich  the  canopy  spread  over  our  heads ;  how 
vitalizing  the  atmosphere  around  lis ;  how  fruitful  the  earth  we  oc- 
cupy ;  how  beautiful  and  cheerful  is  all  nature ;  how  complete  our 
adaptation  to  our  condition;  how  wise  the  laws  imposed  on  us;  how 
much  happiness  they  secure ;  how  much  more  they  might  secure ; 
what  checks  they  impose  on  vice ;  what  encouragements  they  hold 
out  to  virtue ;  and  what  is  all  this  but  the  arrangement  of  sovereign 
ffoodness,  without  our  counsel  or  concurrence  ?  All  this  is  the  crea- 
tion  and  arrangement  of  Christ ;  by  Him  it  all  consists.  How  ptrong 
the  appeal  in  favor  of  living  to  Him,  which  comes  to  the  Christian 
from  the  consideration  of  what  has  been  done  for  him  in  this  point 
of  view !     Who  can  resist  it  ? 

But  great  and  controlling  as  these  several  grounds  are  for  living 
to  Christ,  there  is  another,  which,  with  the  Christian,  far  outweighs 
them  all.  It  is  the  realized  conception  of  the  relation  of  redeemed 
and  Redeemer,  that  truly  fills  the  Christian  soul  with  overwhelming 
and  unutterable  emotion.  The  conception  that,  but  for  the  gracious 
interposition  of  Christ,  his  inevitable  portion  should  be  eternal  death, 
oppresses  him  with  a  sense  of  profoundest  obligation  and  gratitude. 
Sin  had  arrayed  against  him  all  the  interests  and  all  the  power  of  the 
moral  government  of  God.  The  character  of  the  Divine  Governor, 
the  stability  of  the  Divine  throne,  the  majesty  of  the  Divine  law,  the 
interests  of  all  upright  beings,  the  infinite  demerit  of  sin — all  de- 
manded his  consignment  to  everlasting  perdition.  From  this,  all  the 
created  resources  of  the  universe  could  not  dehver  him.  Facts  show 
that  even  the  Almighty  himself  could  not  deliver  him  but  by  the 
substitution  unto  death  of  an  intelligent  being  of  infinite  dignity, 
whose  sufi"erings,  as  a  measure  of  moral  government,  would  be  of  in- 
finite value,  and  a  full  equivalent  for  the  merited  suff'erings  of  the 
guilty.  This  is  clearly  demonstrated  by  the  result  of  the  feeling 
prayer  of  Him  who  was  made  the  substitute.  "  0,  my  Father,"  said 
he,  "  if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me."  The  cup  could  be 
permitted  to  pass  only  on  the  condition  that  man  sjaould  be  left  to 
bear  his  iniquity  himself,  and  consequently  to  perish  forever.  If  the 
Divine  Father  would  save  a  single  sinner,  the  Divine  Son  "  must,  be 
lifted  up  "  to  make  satisfaction  in  his  stead,  and  to  open  the  way  for 
his  salvation. 

The  emergency  was  awful.  A  world  of  immortal  beings,  through 
its  successive  generations,  must  eternally  perish,  or  Christ,  the  only 


THE   christian's   LIFE.  17 

begotten  Son  of  Grod,  must  be  the  ransom.  The  price  required  was 
immense.  Only  the  Infinite  in  humanity  could  furnish  it.  Exac- 
tion was  made,  and  He  became  answerable.  That  He  might  save,  the 
Father  spared  His  own  Son,  neither  "  from  sulFering  nor  in  suffer- 
ing." "  He  laid  on  Him  the  iniquity  of  us  all."  Here,  then,  we 
have  the  ground  above  every  other  upon  which  Christians  feel  that 
they  must  make  the  glory  of  Christ  their  life.  It  is  a  ground  which 
involves  and  gives  force  to  every  other ;  but  above  them  all,  it  rises 
in  moral  grandeur,  and  appeals  to  the  Christian  with  a  moral  power 
bordering  on  omnipotence.  It  points  to  hell,  and  says.  See  the  pit 
whence  thou  art  delivered.  It  points  to  heaven,  and  says.  See  the 
glory  for  which  thou  art  designed.  It  points  to  his  intellectual  and 
moral  endowments,  and  says.  See  what  powers  and  susceptibilities 
have  been  preserved  for  thee.  It  points  to  the  privileges  and  bless- 
ings of  the  spiritual  life,  and  says.  See  what  treasures  and  glory 
are  secured  for  thee.  It  points  to  a  perishing  world,  and  says.  See 
to  what  semce  thou  art  called.  When  the  Christian  thus  contem- 
plates the  interposition  and  claims  of  Christ,  the  language  of  the 
Apostle  becomes  but  the  sober  and  appropriate  expression  of  his  own 
profound  convictions.  "  We  thus  judge,  that  they  who  live  should 
not  henceforth  live  unto  themselves,  but  unto  Him  who  died  for 
them  and  rose  again."  And  under  this  conviction,  he  finds  it  morally 
impossible  to  repress  the  truly  Christian  avowal,  "  To  ^  me  to  live  is 
Christ." 

II.  We  invite  attention,  in  the  second  place,  to  the  field  in  which 
Christians  are  designed  to  make  the  glory  of  Christ  their  life.  A 
just  apprehension  of  the  relation  of  Christ  to  His  people  necessarily 
issues,  as  we  have  seen,  in  a  desire  to  devote  the  whole  of  life  to  His 
honor.  And  the  inquiry  is  natural.  Where  are  Christians  designed 
to  secure  this  honor  for  Christ  ?  The  sphere  is  two-fold.  Christians 
are  obviously  to  labor  for  Christ,  both  in  the  church  and  in  the  world; 
and  their  duties  are  both  personal  and  relative.  These  duties,  more- 
over, present  themselves  in  both  a  negative  and  positive  form.  Every 
man,  even  every  Christian  man,  is  the  subject  of  evils,  and  liable  to 
others,  which  must  be  eradicated  and  avoided,  while  he  has  positive 
wants  which  it  must  be  the  great  business  of  his  life  to  supply ; 
and  what  every  man  may  find  to  be  true  of  himself,  every  Chris- 
tian will  find  to  be  true,  not  only  of  himself,  but  of  all  others 
to  whom  he  is  related,  and  who  have  claims  on  his  sympathies 
2 


18  THE   GLOBY  OF   CHRIST, 

and  efforts  in  their  behalf.  He  possesses  a  physical  organism  of  ex- 
quisite Divine  workmanship,  through  which  he  is  appointed  to  carry 
on  all  his  active  intercourse  with  the  world  around  him.  This  organ- 
ism it  is  his  imperative  duty  to  preserve  intact  for  all  the  purposes  of 
its  creation,  during  his  stay  in  the  present  state.  Unnecessary  ex- 
posure to  any  occasions  of  physical  injury,  as  violence,  climate,  in- 
temperance, pollution,  true  Christianity  absolutely  forbids.  On  the 
contrary,  it  enjoins  all  due  vigilance  and  exertion  to  cherish  and  pre- 
serve, as  far  as  may  be,  a  sound  body  for  the  comfort  and  the  use  of 
the  spirit  in  its  active  efforts  to  serve  Christ  during  this  mortal  life. 
The  human  spirit  itself  is  also  liable  to  great  evils,  originating  in  its 
depravity  and  the  general  depravity  of  the  world.  Envy,  jealousy, 
hatred,  malice,  revenge,  together  with  vanity,  avarice,  ambition,  and 
discontent,  are  very  serious  evils  in  human  nature,  affecting  the  peace, 
the  dignity,  and  the  worth  of  the  soul,  and  which  no  real  Christian 
will  neglect  to  eradicate  and  guard  against.  But  the  necessities' of 
the  spirit  terminate  not  with  the  eradication  of  these  evils ;  they  de- 
mand positive  culture.  Its  true  interests  require  that  it  shall  be 
practically  wise ;  that  it  shall  know  how  to  mingle  with  others,  with- 
out suffering  from  stolid  stupidity  on  the  one  hand,  or  from  rashness 
on  the,  other.  This  is  a  matter  for  observation,  for  reflection,  for 
watchfulness,  and  for  prayer,  which  no  Christian  may  overlook,  and 
which  all  who  anxiously  desire  to  honor  Christ  will  assiduously  attend 
to.  But  the  soul  needs  not  practical  sagacity  only ;  it  needs  also, 
and  must  have,  that  higher  culture  called  knowledge,  or  intelli- 
gence— the  enlightenment  and  discipline  of  the  intellect ;  the  power 
of  thought  must  be  developed  and  strengthened.  In  this  direction, 
there  is  no  assignable  limit  to  the  exertions  after  knowledge  due  to 
the  spirit.  A  still-^higher  want,  however,  is  communion,  intimate 
and  uninterrupted,  with  God.  The  evils  inherent  in  the  (Christian, 
and  the  evils  to  which  he  is  constantly  exposed,  affect  more  or  less 
his  spiritual  frame  of  mind  and  his  spiritual  enjoyment.  He  often 
mourns  an  absent  God.  But  even  if  the  evils  in  question  were  re- 
moved, a  constant,  earnest,  spiritual  culture  is  indispensable  to  attain 
to  a  state  of  ultimate,  habitual  delight  and  happiness  with  God.  What 
is  here  indicated  as  due  from  the  Christian  to  himself,  that  he  may 
reach  the  stature  of  "a  perfect  man,"  indicates,  also,  what  every 
Christian  should  seek  to  aid  in  accomplishing  in  every  other  Chris- 
tian, that  all  may  reach  "  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  of  the  knowledge 


THE   christian's   LIFE.  19 

of  the  Son  of  God."  And  here  comes  into  view  the  importance,  the 
duty,  and  the  power,  of  Christian  association,  as  a  means  of  personal 
and  relative  religious  culture,  and  of  warding  off  the  evils  to  which 
Christians  are  exposed  in  this  life. 

But  we  learn,  also,  that  '^  the  field  is  the  world,"  and  that  Christ 
designs  to  subdue  it  to  Himself  through  the  instrumentality  of  Chris- 
tians, whose  agency,  in  their  successive  generations,  is  not  to  cease 
until  ''  the  Kingdom  and  the  greatness  of  the  Kingdom,  under  the 
whole  heaven,  shall  be  given  to  the  saints  of  the  Most  High."  A 
glance  at  the  moral  condition  of  the  world  will  tend  to  awaken  just 
conceptions  and  sympathies,  and  to  stimulate  Christian  exertions  to 
recover  it  te  Christ. 

Look  at  Europe,  the  boasted  glory  of  the  whole  earth,  and  what 
do  you  see  ?  Almost  its  entire  extent,  with  the  exception  of  one 
small  Kingdom,  given  up  to  the  degradations  of  imposture,  and  to 
the  dead  formalities  of  a  corrupted  Christianity.  There  is  not,  at 
this  moment,  a  city  or  town,  there  is  not  a  village  or  hamlet  or  rural 
district,  but  needs  the  missionary  of  the  Cross  to  teach  the  people 
the  simple  story  of  Jesus.  Look  at  Asia,  and  what  do  you  behold 
there  ?  Here  and  there  may  be  seen  to  flicker,  in  the  midst  of 
the  gloom,  and  at  unmeasured  distances,  a  small  taper,  lit  by  the 
modern  missionary,  as  if  simply  to  intimate  that  the  Gospel  had 
just  touched  the  borders  of  the  habitation  of  nearly  half  the  popula- 
tion of  the  globe.  Look  at  Africa,  and  let  Mofiat,  Livingstone,  and 
others,  say  what  is  there.  In  one  or  two  spots  a  feeble  light,  of  recent 
origin,  may  be  seen  to  twinkle,  as  if  oppressed  by  the  gloom ;  but 
over  the  main  portion  of  that  vast  country  broods,  in  an  unbroken 
cloud,  a  blackness  of  darkness  intenser  far  than  that  of  the  hue  of  its 
sable  sons.  Turn  your  eyes  on  your  own  boasted  continent,  and  what 
meets  you  here  ?  A  mere  patch  is  favored  with  a  partial  supply  of 
the  blessings  of  a  pure  Gospel.  But,  oh  !  what  irreligion,  what  infidel- 
ity, what  intemperance,  what  worldliness,  what  pollution,  what  moral 
ruin,  are  everywhere  to  be  seen,  yea  even  in  our  own  midst.  Look 
at  the  condition  of  many  of  our  cities  and  towns,  and  at  a  very  large 
portion  of  our  Western  Territories ;  and  then  look  far  away  west  and 
south  of  our  own  vast  domain,  and  behold  the  moral  wilderness  spread- 
ing out  beneath  the  tropical  sun,  and  say,  0  say,  how  much  land  re- 
mains yet  to  be  possessed  by  the  saints,  and  in  the  name  of  the  Most 
High !     Verily,  the  world  lieth  in  wickedness.     Full  nine-tenths  of 


20  THE   GLORY  OF   CHRIST, 

its  myriads  of  immortal  inhabitants  are  at  tliis  moment  "  without  God 
and  without  hope/'  "  perishing  for  lack  of  knowledge." 

Nor  is  the  evil  of  their  condition  merely  negative.  Large  num- 
bers are  positively  arrayed  against  God  and  His  revealed  will,  as 
atheists,  skeptics,  and  infidels ;  other  multitudes  are  the  victims  of 
maddened  appetites  and  passions ;  and  still  other  multitudes  are  de- 
graded and  fettered  by  the  impostures  of  the  false  prophet  and  of  the 
man  of  sin ;  while  almost  countless  multitudes  are  brutalized  under 
the  superstitions  of  idolatry  and  the  cruelties  of  bai'barism.  See  how 
even  the  maternal  heart,  that  seat  of  purest  human  affection,  becomes 
petrified,  so  as  to  be  able  to  bait  the  devouring  crocodile  with  the 
tender,  unsuspecting,  often  smiling,  infant  of  her  bosom.  See  how 
the  filial  heart,  too,  becomes  so  callous  as  to  enable  its  possessor, 
without  emotion,  to  fire  the  funeral  pile,  and  tearlessly  gaze  on  the 
last  agonies  of  a  burning  widowed  mother.  And  see,  too,  how  the 
terror-stricken  victim  of  conscious  guilt  has,  under  the  lashings  of 
conscience,  offered  "  his  first-born  for  his  transgression,  the  fruit  of 
his  body  for  the  sin  of  his  soul."  In  the  conflicts  of  appetite  and 
reason,  of  passion  and  conscience,  of  conscious  guilt  and  the  terror 
of'  an  angry  but  misinterpreted  God,  of  infidelity  and  revelation,  of 
superstition  and  true  piety,  nine-tenths  of  the  world's  arena  is  a  vast 
scene  of  madness,  with  only  reason  and  conscience  enough  to  give 
accountability  to  the  whole,  and  to  indicate  with  unerring  certainty 
the  fearful  doom  to  which  life's  drama  is  fast  approaching,  with  the 
vast  majority  of  the  successive  generations  of  men. 

Such  is  this  world  at  a  glance.  What  would  it  be,  could  we  com- 
prehend the  length  and  breadth,  the  height  and  depth,  of  its  actual 
iniquity,  its  wretchedness,  and'  its  doom  ?  It  was  under  this  vast 
conception,  to  us  impossible,  that  the  Father  of  Spirits  was  so  moved 
as  to  give  His  only  begotten  Son  to  atone  for  its  guilt,  and  to  open  a 
way  for  the  exercise  of  mercy  consistently  with  the  integrity  of  his 
moral  government.  Under  its  influence.  He  made  Him  who  knew 
no  sin  to  be  sin,  that  sinners  might  be  made  righteous.  The  same 
conception,  also,  moved  the  Son  himself  to  lay  down  His  life,  that 
redemption  might  be  had  through  His  blood,  that  sinners  might  l^e 
brought  unto  God.  The  Holy  Spirit  acts  under  the  same  profound 
sympathy  and  purpose  of  mercy.  His  great  work  on  earth  is  to  secure 
for  Jesus  "  the  heathen  for  His  inheritance  and  the  uttermost  parts 
of  the  earth  for  His  possession."     Christ  imparts  the  same  noble 


THE   christian's   LIFE.  21 

spirit  and  purpose  to  all  His  true  followers,  and  employs  them  iii  the 
same  gracious  services,  which  engage  the  Father,  the  Spirit,  and 
Himself.  "  Ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  me,"  said  He,  "both  in  Jeru- 
salem, and  in  Judea,  and  in  Samaria,  and  to  the  uttermost  parts  of 
the  earth."  Their  agency  is  to  extend  into  "  all  the  world,"  and, 
through  their  instrumentality,  the  Gospel  is  to  be  preached  "to  every 
creature."  How  divine,  how  glorious,  their  vocation !  They  are 
appointed  to  labor  to  redeem  a  world  from  sin  and  death.  AVhat  holy 
enthusiasm  kindles  in  their  souls,  as  they  go  forth  to  subdue  the  na- 
tions to  Christ,  and  to  "  crown  Him  Lord  of  all."  With  what  ap- 
propriate and  heartfelt  pathos  can  they  set  forth  His  excellency  and 
His  claims.  Out  of  what  depths  of  experience,  and  how  true  to  lifp, 
can  they  depict  the  evils  of  sin.  With  what  tenderness  and  sweet- 
ness of  spirit  can  they  dilate  on  the  peace  and  the  joy  of  faith,  and 
on  the  hope  of  heaven.;  and  if  all  be  likely  to  fail,"  with  what  holy 
tears  can  they  weep  over  and  pray  for  their  race,  as  the  enemies  of 
the  Cross  of  Christ. 

III.  We  invite  attention,  in  the  third  and  last  place,  to  the  spirit 
in  which  Christians  should  make  the  glory  of  Christ  their  life. 
There  is  always  a  liability  to  the  undue  manifestation  of  the  wrongs 
to  which  our  depravity  gives  rise  in  the  conduct  of  the  affairs  of 
Christ's  Kingdom.  Christians  may  not  forget  that,  while  in  this 
world,  they  have  not  yet  attained — are  not  "  already  perfect."  It 
is  impossible  for  them  but  to  find  it  too  often  true,  tlxat,  when  they 
"  would  do  good,  evil  is  present  with  them."  The  spirit  or  temper 
which  Christians  should  exhibit  in  living  professedly  for  Christ,  be- 
comes, then,  a  matter  of  grave  importance.  The  real  worth  and  ef- 
ficacy of  the  Christian  life  essentially  depend  upon  it — so  much  so, 
that  it  matters  but  little  what  else  the  Christian  professor  has,  if  he 
have  not  the  proper  temper.  Being  of  "another  spirit,"  his  life  is 
likely  to  be  productive  of  more  harm  than  good.  Talent,  position, 
opportunity,  only  increase  the  power  of  such  a  man  to  do  evil.  The 
spirit  of  a  man  is  the  most  difficult  part  of  his  nature  to  conceal — it 
always  protrudes,  is  ever  present,  and  sure  to  make  its  own  impres- 
sion. It  is  therefore  not  only  important,  but  imperative,  that  every 
Christian  shall  labor  to  possess  "  the  spirit  of  Christ."  No  other  is 
allowed  or  suitable.  This  is  his  great  model,  and  should  ever  be  his 
study. 

Christians  should  especially  cultivate  and  exhibit  a  spirit  of  dis- 


22  THE   GLORY  OF   CHRIST, 

interestedness  in  tlie  service  of  Christ.  Paul  represents  it  as  the 
great  excellency  of  Timothy,  that  he  supremely  sought ''  the  things 
which  are  Jesus  Christ's."  His  injunction  to  the  Christians  at  Cor- 
inth was  :  "  Let  no  man  seek  his  own,  but  every  man  another's  wel- 
fare." To  the  Philippians  he  said  :  "  Let  each  esteem  other  better 
than  themselves."  He  spoke  of  Epaphroditus  with  high  commenda- 
tion, "  becaiise  for  the  work  of  Christ  he  was  nigh  unto  death,  not 
regarding  his  life  to  supply  "  a  certain  lack  of  service.  Paul's  own 
spirit,  no  mean  model,  may  be  learned  from  such  exj)ressions  as  these : 
"  None  of  these  things  move  me ;  neither  count  I  my  life  dear  unto 
myself,  so  that  I  might  finish  my  course  with  joy."  "  I  will  very 
gladly  spend  and  be  spent  for  you,  though  the  more  abundantly  I 
love  you.,  the  less  I  be  loved."  "  Yea,  and  if  I  be  offered  upon  the 
sacrifice  and  service  of  your  faith,  I  joy  and  rejoice  with  you  all." 
In  these  examples,  we  have  "the  mind"  that  was  in  Him  who  "came 
down  from  heaven,  not  to  do"  His  own  will,  but  the  will  of  Him  rhat 
sent  Him;  and  who,  in  obedience  to  that  will,  "laid  down  His  life 
for  the  sheep."  How  completely  self  is  subordinated  in  that  spirit, 
which  it  is  the  duty  of  every  Christian  to  cultivate  and  to  practice. 
Nothing  else  is  compatible  with  his  relations  and  obligations  to  Christ 
and  to  the  souls  of  men.  However  it  may  be  with  others,  he  is  to  glo- 
rify Christ,  not  himself ;  to  seek  the  things  that  are  Christ's,  not  his 
own.  In  this  lies  the  distinguishing  excellency  of  his  character, 
and,  in  a  great  measure,  the  power  of  his  life. 

On  this  subject,  let  each  interrogate  himself  with  candor.  Do  I 
possess  this  temper  ?  Am  I  concious  of  its  governing  influence  in 
my  life  ?  Does  it  underlie  my  plans  ?  Does  it  regulate  their  execu- 
tion ?  Can  I  appeal  to  the  omniscient  eye,  and  say,  the  love  of  Christ 
constraineth  ?  Do  I  covet  intelligence,  position,  and  influence,  that 
under  this  heavenly  spirit  I  may  the  better  advance  the  ^Kingdom 
of  Christ  ?  Oh,  what  excellence !  How  noble,  how  divine,  the  at- 
tainment !     How  it  facilitates  living  to  Christ ! 

Christians  should  also  cultivate  a  spirit  of  depenglence  on  Christ. 
To  live  for  His  glory  is  impossible,  without  the  support  of  His  divine 
arm.  The  Christian's  strength  is  in  the  Most  High,  who  has  never 
for  a  moment  suspended  His  own  immediate  superintendence  in  the 
progress  of  His  cause.  'To  His  most  holy  and  reliable  servants  He 
has  never  wholly  committed  His  honor.  He  watches  it  with  His 
own  eye.    He  steadies  and  directs  it  with  His  own  hand.    Thus  only 


THE   christian's   LIFE.  23 

can  its  triumph  be  successfully  secured.  In  living  to  Christ,  Chris- 
tians "  live  and  move  and  have  their  being  "  in  Himself.  Their  suc- 
cess is  all  owing  to  Him.  True,  He  imparts  to  them  no  inspiration 
to  render  their  counsel  infallible  or  their  decisions  authoritative ;  but 
He  does  not  leave  them  to  themselves,  nor  His  cause  to  their  finite 
skill.  In  the  economy  of  grace,  Christ  is  made  to  the  Christian  wis- 
dom, for  every  time  of  need — His  presence  is  promised  always.  All 
the  Divine  perfections,  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead,  are  pledged.  It 
is,  then,  incumbent  on  the  Christian  to  avail  himself  of  all  the  Di- 
vine aid  profiered  him.  He  should  never  go  forth  in  any  great  un- 
dertaking without  the  conviction  that,  with  respect  to  it,  he  has  "  the 
mind  of  the  Lord,"  and  that  in  its  conduct  he  has  "the  power  of 
His  might."  Incousideration  and  rashness  may  be  the  result  of 
being  unsent,  and  undue  confidence  in  the  arm  of  flesh  is  incom- 
patible with  that  "  wisdom  which  is  profitable  to  direct,"  and  which, 
when  properly  invoked,  insures  being  "  strong  in  the  Lord."  Even 
when  the  Christian  has  reason  to  believe  that  his  plans  are  wise 
and  his  efibrts  in  the  right  direction,  he  should  go  forth  only  in 
the  strength  of  Grod ;  because  it  is  only  "  through  God  "  that  the 
weapons  of  his  warfare  are  mighty  to  the  pulling  down  of  strong- 
holds. No  truth  is  more  clearly  taught  in  the  Scriptures,  than  that 
"  the  increase  "  must  ever  be  of  God.  Under  the  distinct  apprehen- 
sion of  this  truth,  the  Apostle  said,  "  When  I  am  weak,  then  am  I 
strong."  "  I  can  do  all  things  through  Christ  which  strengtheneth 
me." 

Again,  Christians  should  ever  manifest  a  spirit  of  self-consuming 
ardor  in  the  service  of  Christ.  The  complete  sanctification  of  their 
own  hearts,  and  the  conquest  of  the  world  to  Christ,  is  an  under- 
taking of  immense  difficulty,  as  well  as  of  immense  importance. 
The  intense  sufferings  of  Christ,  endured  for  the  purpose  of  laying 
the  foundation  for  it,  sufiiciently  show  the  greatness  of  the  difficulty 
as  it  lay  in  the  mind  of  God.  As  co-workers  with  God,  Christians 
need  to  drink  deep  into  suffering,  that  they  may  know  something  of 
the  fellowship  of  Christ's  sufferings,  and  thus  be  prepared  to  endure 
the  privations,  the  toils,  and  the  sacrifices,  which  a  life  of  enlightened 
zeal  and  ardor  in  the  Divine  life  may  be  expected  to  encounter.  The 
Apostle  uttered  no  extravagance  when  he  said :  "  I  count  not  my 
life  dear  unto  myself,  so  that  I  might  finish  my  course  with  joy." 
He  simply  gave  utterance  in  another  form  to  the  ardent  feelings 


24  THE   GLORY  OF   CHRIST,    ETC. 

wMcli  burned  in  the  bosom  of  Christ  himself,  when  He  said  :  ''  I 
have  a  baptism  to  be  baptized  with,  and  how  am  I  straitened  till 
it  is  accomplished."  The  glory  of  Christ  in  the  redemption  of  man 
is  the  Christian's  natural  and  legitimate  passion.  Who  can  limit  its 
just  intensity  and  earnestness  for  the  recovery  of  a  lost  world  ?  How 
intensely  it  must  have  burned  in  the  heart  of  Grod,  when  "  He  spared 
not  His  own  Son,  but  delivered  Him  up  for  us  all."  In  that  sur- 
render, all  the  perfections  of  His  nature  were  "  kindled  together  " 
into  the  deepest  compassion  for  the  perishing.  With  what  power 
must  it  have  operated  in  the  heart  of  Jesus  in  the  garden  and  on  the 
cross,  where  He  gave  full  manifestation  of  "the  travail  of  His  soul." 

The  true  Christian  is  in  no  danger  of  passing  the  bounds  of  pro- 
priety in  the  excitement  of  his  emotions  on  this  subject.  What 
might  be  extravagance  on  any  other,  is  here  only  sobriety.  The 
half  that  is  due  cannot  be  felt  or  manifested.  The  Apostle  could 
not  mention  the  enemies  of  the  cross  without  "  even  weeping."  He 
tells  us  that  he  "travailed  in  birth"  for  perishing  sinners;  that  their 
condition  occasioned  him  "  great  heaviness  and  continual  sorrow  of 
heart."  David  gave  vent  to  his  burdened  feelings  in  "rivers  of 
water"  from  his  eyes.  Jeremiah  exclaimed,  in  the  deep  anguish  of 
his  soul,  "  My  bowels,  my  bowels  !  I  am  pained  at  my  very  heart,  I 
cannot  hold  my  peace."  Jehovah  himself  says  of  wayward  Ephraim, 
"  I  do  earnestly  remember  him  still,  my  bowels  are  troubled  for  him." 
Of  the  blessed  Jesus  it  is  written :  "  When  He  beheld  the  city.  He 
wept  over  it." 

Such  ardor  is  not  only  becoming,  it  is  highly  beneficial ;  and  is  so 
no  less  to  its  subject  than  its  object.  It  tends  to  consume  the  dross 
and  tin  of  the  Christian's  own  heart.  It  raises  him  above  the  level 
where  vice  usually  tempts,  and  places  him  amid  the  sterner  and  higher 
realities  of  life.  The  temptations  of  idleness  and  of  luxury  belong 
not  to  the  sphere  in  which  it  prompts  him  to  move.  It  keeps  him 
viewing  man  as  immortal,  yet  in  danger  of  eternal  death.  It  stamps 
times  and  things  with  their  proper  estimate,  and  inflapaes  with  aspira- 
tions and  desires  which  this  world  cannot  satisfy.  Nothing  short  of 
living  to  Christ  supremely  can  gratify  it  while  here,  and  nothing 
short  of  having  Christ  as  its  eternal  portion  can  gratify  it  hereafter. 


L--/" 


^<^-Z^riL^         /2'2^> 


CHRIST,  AND  HIM  CRUCIFIED, 
THE  EXCLUSIVE  THEME  OF  THE  PULPIT. 


BY  REV.  LINUS  PARKER,  A.  M., 

OF  THE  LOUISIANA  CONFERKNCE,  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH  SOUTH. 


For  I  determined  not  to  know  anything  among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and 
Him  crucified. — 1  Corinthians,  ii,  2. 

Fidelity  to  the  Cross  stands  out  prominently  in  the  words  and  life 
of  Paul.  It  is  in  relief  upon  every  page  of  his  writings  and  in  every 
act  of  his  history.  Under  all  circumstances,  he  ever  presents  the 
same  genuine  Gospel  front.  No  pressure  from  without,  no  prompt- 
ings from  within,  warped  him  from  this.  Such  pressure  there  was 
from  one  or  both  of  these  sources. 

With  natural  endowment  enough  to  enrich  a  hundred  minds,  im- 
proved by  the  most  careful  culture,  and  stored  with  the  lettered  at- 
tainments of  the  most  celebrated  masters,  he  may  have  felt  strong 
temptation  to  depart  from  the  simplicity  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 
He  was  "  a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews;  as  touching  the  law,  a  Pharisee." 
He  was  brought  up  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel,  and  thoroughly  imbued 
with  the  spirit  of  Judaism.  We  know  how  hard  it  was  for  his  fellow 
Apostles,  and  for  the  early  Jewish  disciples,  to  divest  themselves  of 
the  errors  and  prejudices  of  education.  In  Paul,  this  was  not  ac- 
complished without  struggles  of  soul  of  which  the  world  has  never 
heard. 

And  there  were  outward  solicitations  which  appealed  strongly  to 
these  points  of  attack  within.  Christ  crucified  was  a  stumbling  block 
to  the  Jew,  and  foolishness  to  the  Greek.  There  was  abundant  clamor 
for  compromise  and  adaptation.  Many  of  the  converts  had  given 
way.  How  strong  the  temptation  to  seek  some  modification  by  which 
the  Jew  might  be  disarmed  and  the  Greek  conciliated — some  com- 


26  CHRIST,   AND   HIM   CRUCIFIED, 

inon  ground  upon  wMch  the  Cross,  stripped  of  its  offence,  might  be 
planted !  The  Jew  and  the  Greek  were  in  Corinth.  The  Gospel 
would  be  sifted  there.  Whatever  of  offence  it  had  would  be  felt  to 
the  utmost.  There  would  be  a  demand  for  the  law,  and  not  for  the 
Gospel ;  and  men  with  itching  ears,  earnest  for  the  wisdom  of  words, 
and  not  for  the  foolishness  of  preaching.  There  needed  a  determi- 
nation against  this  multiform  pressure.  The  text  is  it.  For  I  de- 
termined. There  is  heroism  in  the  resolve,  and  in  the  performance 
of  it.  No  compromise  with  the  Jew,  none  with  the  Greek,  none  with 
the  world. 

It  is  a  bold  condensation  of  the  preacher's  mission.  Christ  is  all 
in  all.  The  jBeld  is  narrowed  to  Him.  It  is  not  more,  nor  is  it  less. 
But  the  condensation  goes  on,  and  greater  compactness  is  given  to 
the  subject  matter  of  preaching.  '' And  Him  crucified."  This  is 
Christ  defined ;  not  the  historical  Christ  merely,  as  our  example,  and 
a  martyr  to  the  truth,  but  the  crucified  Christ  as  a  sacrifice,  and  as 
"  the  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world."  The 
atonement,  as  the  great  central  and  saving  doctrine  of  the  Gospel,  is 
announced  as  that  to  which  Paul  avows  his  adhesion,  and  his  deter- 
mination to  make  it  the  exclusive  subject  of  his  ministry. 

I.  The  import  of  this  determination. 
.  1.  It  is  the  language  of  Christian  devotedness  and  ministerial  con- 
secration. 

Applied  to  the  Christian  man,  it  looks  to  a  thorough  and  devoted 
discipleship,  in  which  the  believer  neither  lives  nor  dies  to  himself. 
In  a  most  important  sense,  every  Christian,  however  obscure  his  po- 
sition, should  know  nothing  save  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified. 
As  expressive  of  faithfulness  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ, 
as  the  only  ground  of  salvation  especially,  and  as  the  symbol  of  that 
crucified  life  which  we  are  required  to  lead,  it  should  be  the  heart- 
felt language  of  all  believers.  The  atonement  reaches  to  every- 
thing— to  the  air  we  breathe,  to  the  ground  we  walk  on,  and  to  the 
entire  life.  God's  claim  upon  the  creature,  the  redeemed  creature 
in  particular,  is  an  exhaustive  one.  No  man  is  his  own ;  he  is  bought 
with  a  price.  Less  is  not  required  of  the  layman  than  the  minister. 
The  extent  and  the  spirit  of  the  consecration  isthe  same  in  both,  and 
differs  only  in  the  direction  it  takes,  or  in  the  manner  of  its  manifest- 
ation. The  same  generous  liberality,  the  same  life  of  faith,  and  the 
same  all-pervading  spirituality,  should  characterize  every  child  of  God. 


THE   EXCLUSIVE   THEME   OF   THE   PULPIT.  27 

But  whilst  we  insist  upon  an  equal  because  an  entire  consecration 
in  all  Christians,  there  is  such  a  difference  as  grows  out  of  a  distinc- 
tion between  the  Christian  man  and  the  Christian  minister.  The 
minister  is  not  a  Christian  man  merely,  nor  can  he  put  off  the  minis- 
terial character  at  pleasure,  and  resolve  himself  back  into  the  Chris- 
tian man.  If  called  of  God  to  the  ministry,  and  invested  with  the 
sacred  office,  there  is  a  peculiar  consecration  demanded  of  him,  which 
is  not  met  in  the  Christian  man.  The  extent  may  be  the  same,  but 
it  runs  in  different  channels,  and  assumes  a  distinct  and  specific 
manifestation.  Nor  does  the  sole  distinctive  feature  of  ministerial 
character  and  office  lie  in  the  functions  of  the  pulpit.  There  is  a 
character  and  life  which  lie  back  of  this,  and  which  are  as  insepara- 
ble from  the  ministry  as  the  functions  of  the  pulpit.  Whether  in 
the  pulpit  or  out  of  it,  or  if  engaged  in  secular  business,  this  charac- 
ter still  cleaves  to  him  who  is  called  to  preach  the  Gospel.  The 
office,  in  its  proper  consecration,  covers  the  entire  life,  embracing 
talents,  time,  and  substance.  Secular  pursuits,  as  a  necessity,  and  as 
a  means  to  the  fulfilment  of  the  duties  of  the  ministry,  do  not  impair 
this  consecration ;  but  beyond  this,  and  when  followed  from  the  usual 
incentives  of  secular  enterprise,  they  come  in  violent  collision  with 
it.  Paul  did  not  compromise  himself,  nor  fail  in  the  resolve  of  the 
text,  when  he  worked  at  his  trade  with  Aquila  and  Priscilla,  at 
Corinth,  and  when  elsewhere,  and  on  other  occasions,  his  own  hands 
ministered  to  his  necessities.  The  apostle  and  the  'preacher  were 
never  lost  in  the  tent-maker,  but  the  last  was  made  tributary  to  the 
prosecution  of  his  mission  as  an  ambassador  of  Jesus  Christ.  Exclu- 
sive devotion  to  the  ministry  is  necessary  to  the  performance  of  its 
entire  duties.  Effectiveness  in  the  pulpit,  in  general,  requires  much 
premeditation  and  study ;  and,  besides,  the  duties  of  the  pastorate  are 
not  less  binding,  nor  are  they  scarcely  less  important,  than  those  of 
the  pulpit. 

Insisting  as  we  do  that  the  determination  of  the  text  applies  to  the 
ministry  outside  of  the  pulpit,  we  are  prepared  to  admit  that  its 
prominent  application  is  to  the  subject  matter  of  exposition  in  the 
more  immediate  business  of  preaching.  It  looks  to  a  consecrated 
pulpit,  the  great  mission  of  which  is  to  unfold  the  doctrine  of  the 
atonement,  and  to  urge  it  upon  the  acceptance  of  a  ruined  world. 
This  is  the  distinctive  burden  of  preaching,  and  it  is  here  that  the 
determination  of  the  Apostle  bears  with  all  its  weight. 


28  CHRIST,   AND   HIM   CRUCIFIED, 

2.  Christ,  and  Him  crucified,  is  to  be  the  exclusive  subject  of 
preaching  in  the  sense  of  eminence.  "  A  man  of  one  book  "  was  the 
motto  of  Wesley,  and  it  should  be  the  motto  of  every  evangelical 
preacher.  Paul's  resolution  amounts  to  this,  when  he  declares,  "  For 
I  determined  not  to  know  anything  among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and 
Him  crucified."  But  the  Bible,  as  our  text-book,  is  a  mine  of  varied 
riches.  It  is  fruitful  of  the  rarest  historical  knowledge.  Almost 
every  science  can  gather  treasures  from  its  contents,  and  every  art 
can  draw  embellishment  from  its  pages.  The  poet  finds  in  it  that 
which  quickens  and  elevates  his  muse,  the  orator's  lips  are  -kindled 
by  its  eloquence,  and  the  philosopher  is  indebted  to  it  for  his  noblest 
conceptions.  The  incidental  wealth  of  the  Bible,  in  many  of  the 
departments  of  knowledge  and  philosophy,  is  greater  than  all  the 
discoveries  and  productions  of  uninspired  mind. 

More  nearly  related  to  evangelical  truth  are  numerous  doctrines 
and  precepts  of  inspiration,  of  the  highest  importance  to  man,  and 
not  to  be  overlooked  by  him  who  expounds  the  Word  of  God.  "All 
Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profitable  for  doc- 
trine, for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteousness  3 
that  the  man  of  God  may -be  perfect,  thoroughly  furnished  unto  all 
good  works."  All  the  words  of  God,  all  the  thoughts  of  God,  are 
precious.  Every  jot  and  tittle  is  to  be  studied,  and  made  to  con- 
tribute to  the  stores  of  the  well-instructed  scribe  in  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven. 

But  whilst  the  whole  canon  of  revelation  is  laid  open  in  the  sacred 
desk,  the  atonement,  in  peerless  eminence,  is  to  take  precedence  of 
every  other  topic.  Subordinate  features  in  the  scene  there  are;  but 
this,  like  the  high  mountains  of  the  earth's  altitudes,  towers  above 
them  all.  This  eminence  the  Cross  has  in  the  Word  of  God,  and 
the  faithful  minister  will  study  to  give  it  the  same  relative  position 
in  his  exhibitions  of  the  truth.  Christ  is  in  no  sense  to  constitute 
the  background  of  a  sermon.  Moses  and  Elias  may  be  on  either 
hand,  but  Christ  should  ever  be  the  central  thought,  which,  like 
a  transfigured  presence,  permeates  and  subordinates  everything 
around  it. 

3.  The  atonement,  in  the  sense  of  comprehensiveness,  and  as  ex- 
haustive of  Divine  revela'tion,  is  the  exclusive  theme  of  the  pulpit. 

This  doctrine  struggles  for  utterance  in  the  earliest  pages  of  in- 
spiration.    Through  all  dispensations  of  religion  to  man,  it  is  the 


THE   EXCLUSIVE  THEME   OP  THE   PULPIT.  29 

ever-growing  subject  of  a  progressive  and  gradual  revelation.  The 
Christology  of  the  Old  Testament  is  that  of  the  New,  in  its  germ.  It 
is  the  Gospel  in  the  blade  and  in  the  stalk,  but  not  the  full  corn  in 
the  ear.  The  history,  biographies,  manifestations,  and  ceremonies, 
of  the  past,  were  the  swaddling  bands  of  an  immature  Christianity. 
The  entire  sacrificial  economy  of  Patriarchal  and  Levitical  times  pro- 
claimed Christ  crucified.  "  The  law  was  our  schoolmaster  to  bring 
us  to  Christ,"  "and  Christ  is  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness  to 
every  one  that  believeth."  The  atonement  is  the  Gospel.  It  is  the 
Gospel  brought  to  a  focus.  Moses  Stuart  calls  it  "the  point  of 
points."  In  it  we  have  all  that  the  Gospel  is,  and  from  this  centre 
an  entire  exposition  of  the  Gospel  is  reached,  so  that  a  full  explica- 
tion of  Christ  crucified  embraces  the  whole  circle  of  revealed  truth. 
Paul  did  not  fail  to  declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God,  but,  he  says, 
"  We  preach  Christ  crucified."  In  the  Gospels  aiid  Epistles,  this 
doctrine  is  the  main  current  which  runs  through  them — sometimes 
profoundly  hid  from  the  careless  reader,  but  ever  and  anon  rising  to 
the  surface,  and  sweeping  on  with  resistless  power  and  subduing 
pathos. 

Christ,  and  Him  crucified,  brings  out  the  clear  and  harmonious 
statement  of  the  prominent  doctrines  of  the  Christian  system.  All 
that  is  fundamental  in  the  Gospel  is  exhibited  in  the  Cross.  In  con- 
nection with  it,  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  clearly  and  powerfully 
vindicated.  One  God  in  a  three-fold  distinction  of  persons  is  un- 
equivocally affirmed  in  the  atonement,  so  that  the  high  significance 
of  the  one  is  lost  without  the  admission  of  the  other.  The  personal 
distinction  of  the  Father  and  Son  is  made  in  the  sacrifice  which  the 
latter  ofi"ers  and  the  former  accepts;  and  the  Holy  Ghost  is  revealed, 
as  distinct  from  either,  in  the  offices  which  he  sustains  to  the  work 
of  redemption.  We  think  that  a  careful  consideration  of  the  subject 
will  result  in  the  conclusion  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  keeps 
pace  in  clearness  with  that  of  the  atonement,  and  that  its  completest 
disclosure  is  made  in  fellowship  with  it.  The  Trinity  is  a  positive 
and  everlasting  truth,  but  the  necessity  of  its  announcement  does  not 
appear,  apart  from  the  plan  of  salvation  and  the  work  of  redemption. 
But  for  the  remedial  intervention  which  the  fall  of  man  called  for, 
it  might  have  remained  among  the  secret  things  which  belong  to 
God,  rather  than,  as  now,  amongst  the  things  which  are  revealed, 
and  which  belong  to  us  and  our  children.     Consistency  and  reason 


30  CHRIST,   AND   HIM   CRUCIFIED, 

demand  tliat  the  atonement,  in  its  high  evangelical  import  as  a 
vicarious  and  expiatory  sacrifice,  be  held  in  connection  with  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  They  stand  or  fall  together.  Where  one 
is  denied,  the  other  is  rejected.  All  low  and  imperfect  views  of 
Christ  are  necessarily  Unitarian,  because  such  views  strip  the  Trinity 
at  once  of  its  necessity  and  of  its  most  comprehensive  argument. 

There  is,  indeed,  an  affinity  of  logical  relation  and  consequence 
which  obtains  between  the  atonement  and  the  subordinate  but  funda- 
mental doctrines  of  our  theology,  none  of  which  can  be  held  in  har- 
mony and  security  apart  from  that  which  is  the  centre  of  them  all. 
Where  else  do  we  read  more  clearly  the  lost  condition  of  men,  than 
in  the  tragic  exhibition  of  Calvary  ?  Where  else  are  the  issues  of 
human  destiny  more  fearfully  portrayed  ?  "  If  one  died  for  all,  then 
were  all  dead."  Thus  the  doctrine  of  Christ  crucified  implies  the 
original  birth  sin  of  our  race.  The  remedy  provided  at  such  an  incon- 
ceivable cost  is  in  fact  the  most  overwhelming  statement  of  the  dis- 
ease. Jesus  exclaims,  in  the  final  hour,  "Now  is  the  judgment  of 
this  world."  If  the  Cross  is  a  wonderful  exhibition  of  Divine  love, 
so  is  it  also  a  most  unequivocal  declaration  of  human  depravity  and 
peril. 

'  The  atonement  is  the  only  foundation  upon  which  a  scriptural  or 
reasonable  theodicy  can  be  built.  In  it  the  character  of  God  is  pre- 
sented in  the  perfection  of  every  attribute.  Truth,  wisdom,  power, 
justice,  love,  shine  undimmed.  The  great  problem,  how  Grod  can  be 
just,  and  at  the  same  time  the  justifier  of  the  ungodly,  is  solved. 
Here,  mercy  and  truth  embrace.  The  sinning  creature  is  saved,  and 
the  ofiended  Creator  is  reconciled.  The  guilty  and  condemned  are 
restored  to  favor,  and  the  majesty  of  the  Divine  government  is  up- 
held. Were  it  necessary,  and  did  time  permit,  we  might  at  least 
glance  at  those  difficulties  concerning  the  original  creation ,  and  the 
subsequent  fall  of  man,  which  are  by  some  supposed  to  embarrass 
our  theology,  and  show  that  evangelical  Arminianism  is  capable  of 
dissipating  them,  so  far  as  they  are  properly  theological.  A  right 
conception  of  the  atonement  is  the  starting-point  of  doctrinal  inquiry 
and  exegesis,  and  it  will  be  found  that  most  damaging  heresies  arise 
just  where  this  right  conception  is  departed  from.  Those  systems 
which  limit  the  atonement,  and  those  which  make  it  alike  unlimited 
and  unconditional,  prove  and  illustrate  the  position.  The  former, 
by  th<3  dark  reserve  of  decree  and  pretention  which  is  hid  behind 


THE   EXCLUSIVE   THEME   OF   THE   PULPIT.  31 

-  the  free  tender  of  mercy  in  Christ,  rob  the  Cross  of  its  glory ;  and 
the  hitter,  by  unwarranted  license,  impeach  the  justice  and  tarnish 
the  holiness  of  God. 

If  the  atonement  is  exhaustive  of  Christian  doctrines,  it  is  also  an 
exhibition  of  the  will  of  God.  The  Gospel  is  the  perfect  law  of  lib- 
erty. As  the  rule  of  life,  it  is  to  us  all  that  the  law  is  to  angels,  and 
all  that  it  was  to  Adam.  It  is  not  the  ground  of  salvation,  but  it  is 
the  rule  of  Christian  life.  The  severity  and  purity  of  the  law  is  more 
deeply  unfolded  in  the  Gospel  than  anywhere  else,  and  its  claims  are 
attested  with  thrilling  emphasis  in  the  death  of  Jesus.  The  compre- 
hensive appeal  of  God  to  a  perishing  world  is  made  in  the  Cross. 
"  For  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  on^y  begotten  Son. 
that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  ever- 
lasting life."  Would  we  call  men  to  repentance,  and  persuade  them 
to  faith,  this  is  the  life-giving  message.  If  you  would  feed  the  flock 
of  God,  "  this  is  the  true  bread  which  came  down  from  Heaven."  If 
you  would  raise  the  Christian  life  to  a  loftier  denial  and  spirituality, 
"  the  love  of  Christ  which  constraineth  us  "  is  the  sure  basis  of  such 
an  appeal. 

4.  Christ  crucified  becomes  the  pulpit's  only  theme  when  it  is 
recognised  as  vitally  related  to  the  whole  of  Divine  revelation,  and 
when  the  "Word  of  God  is  altogether  apprehended  and  expounded  as 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 

The  mediatorial  idea  is  broad  and  sublime,  but  it  is  'without  har- 
mony or  power  when  the  kingly  and  prophetical  offices  of  Christ  are 
considered  apart  from  their  relations  to  the  priesthood.  The  centre 
of  the  mediatorial  idea  is  the  priesthood,  and  the  other  offices  are 
subordinate  and  complementary  to  it.  Any  presentation  of  Christ 
which  does  not  set  forth  this  vital  relation  which  the  priesthood  sus- 
tains to  the  regal  and  prophetical  offices,  must  be  regarded  as  capi- 
tally defective.  It  would  be  a  one-sided  Gospel  at  best,  and,  although 
dignified  as  the  preaching  of  Christ,  it  could  not  claim  to  be  the 
preaching  of  Christ,  and  Him  crucified. 

The  law  as  the  subject  of  the  pulpit  should  be  held  up  in  its 
proper  connection  with  the  Gospel.  A  sermon  upon  this  subject,  in 
which  Christ  is  not  presented  as  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteous- 
ness, is  little  less  than  a  monstrous  pulpit  barbarity.  The  law,  pro- 
claimed in  its  baldness,  and  as  divorced  from  the  Gospel,  divests  the 
pulpit  of  its  evangelical  character.     It  may  be  the  Christianity  of 


32  CHRIST,   AND   HIM   CRrCIFIED, 

Moses  and  of  David's  time,  but  it  is  not  the  Christianity  of  Christ  and 
His  Apostles.  The  topic  which  cannot  be  brought  into  near  con- 
nection with  the  atonement,  has  no  legitimate  place  in  the  sermon. 
Whether  we  deal  with  man's  depravity  or  with  Heaven's  mercy, 
whether  we  speak  of  God  as  a  consuming  fire  or  as  the  Saviour  of  all 
men,  whether  we  portray  the  flames  of  perdition  or  expatiate  upon  that 
life  and  immortality  which  are  brought  to  light  through  the  Gospel, 
the  atonement  must  be  recognised  in  its  vital  relation  to  them  all. 
Whatever  these  are  in  themselves,  they  are  not  living  .and  felt  truths 
until  seen  in  their  relation  to  the  Cross  of  Christ. 

It  is  then  as  the  eminent,  comprehensive,  and  vital  truth  of  Divine 
revelation,  that  we  are  shut  up  to  Christ,  and  Him  crucified,  as  the 
subject  of  preaching.  We  have  aimed  to  show  that  in  the  Apostle's 
determination  there  is  no  lack  of  breadth  and  fullness,  and  that  it  is 
not  the  cramped  and  narrow  view  of  the  special  pleader.  Christ  is 
the  text,  of  which  the  Gospel  and  all  the  pages  of  inspiration  are 
the  splendid  amplification.  What  this  determination  excludes,  is 
left  to  be  implied  or  inferred  from  those  general  principles  which 
have  been  but  partially  and  imperfectly  stated. 
II.  Reasons  of  this  determination. 
'  1.  Found  in  the  Divine  call  and  commission  to  preach  the  Gospel. 
The  minister  is  called  of  God.  This  call  is  effected  by  the  agency 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  directly  moving  those  whom  God  has  selected  for 
His  work,  and  is  distinct  from  the  work  of  regeneration,  sanctifica- 
tion,  and  adoption.  The  preacher's  commission  is  given  in  the  Gos- 
pel, and  in  the  words  of  Jesus  to  the  Apostles.  The  call  is  to  fulfil 
the  commission,  and  the  commission  is  a  limited  and  specific  one: 
"  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature." 
Paul's  commission  to  the  Gentiles  was,  "  to  open  their  eyes,  and  to 
turn  them  from  darkness  to  light,  and  from  the  power  of  Satan  unto 
God,  that  they  may  receive  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  inheritance 
among  them  which  are  sanctified  by  faith  which  is  in  me."  As 
ambassadors  for  Christ,  God  hath  "committed  to  us  the  Word 
of  reconciliation."  "  Now  then  we  are  ambassadors  for  Christ,  as 
though  God  did  beseech  you  by  us ;  we  pray  you,  in  Christ's  stead, 
be  ye  reconciled  to  God."  So  distinctly  was  this  commission  limited, 
that  Paul  unequivocally 'declares,  "for  Christ  sent  me  not  to  baptize, 
but  to  preach  the  Gospel ;  not  with  the  wisdom  of  words,  lest  the 
Cross  of  Christ  should  be  made  of  none  effect."     Now,  the  drift  of 


THE   EXCLUSIVE   THEME    OF   THE   PULPIT.  83 

these  Scriptures,  and  many  others  of  like  import,  is,  tluit  the  com- 
mission is  limited  to  Christ,  as  the  ground  of  reconciliation  between 
God  and  man,  and  that  the  minister  has  no  warrant  for  nreaching 
anything  else. 

To  go  beyond  this  special  instruction  is  not  only  a  violation  of  the 
ordination  vows,  but  it  is  directly  opposed  to  the  letter  and  spirit  of 
the  Divine  commission.  Where  the  mission  of  the  preacher  is  so 
sharply  deftned  and  so  carefully  guarded,  we  cannot  suppose  that  he 
is  at  liberty  to  diverge  in  the  slightest  degree  from  the  line  of  duty 
which  he  is  so  clearly  instructed  to  follow.  Whatever  liberty  may 
be  accorded  to  ministers  in  the  discussion  and  advocacy  of  questions 
and  principles  of  secular,  literary,  political,  and  scientific  interest, 
their  right  to  invest  these  subjects  with  the  prestige  of  the  pulpit, 
and  to  make  them  the  staple  of  pulpit  discourse,  is  indefensible. 
Their  call  to  the  ministry  was  not  in  reference  to  these  things,  and 
the  commission  under  which  they  profess  to  act  lays  a  proscriptive 
ban  upon  their  introduction. 

2.  Fidelity  to  the  Apostle's  determination  is  the  condition  of 
power.  The  Gospel  in  its  purity  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation 
to  every  one  that  believeth.  Christ  is  the  wisdom  of  God,  and  the 
power  of  God.  "  After  that,  in  the  wisdom  of  God,  the  world  by 
wisdom  knew  not  God,  it  pleased  God  through  the  foolishness  of 
preaching  to  save  them  which  believe." 

The  true  power  of  the  pulpit  is  not  intellectual.  It  is  not  the 
power  of  mind.  Nor  is  it  the  power  which  genius  and  eloquence 
display  in  exciting  and  wielding  the  lower  passions  and  superficial 
sympathies.  This  is  often  displayed  without  any  corresponding- 
results  in  the  moral  and  spiritual  man.  The  power  of  the  lecture, 
the  rostrum,  and  the  bar,  is  not  pulpit  power.  The  culture  and 
art  which  bi-ing  success  to  them,  may  enhance  the  attractiveness  and 
promote  the  efficiency  of  the  preacher,  and  should  be  studied  to 
these  ends ;  but  these  alone  will  never  secure  that  desideratum  in 
preaching  which  we  call  power.  They  are  neither  barriers  to  it,  nor 
the  essential  conditions  of  it.  The  ministrations  of  the  sanctuary 
may  be  invested  with  a  factitious  interest,  and  spell-bound  multitudes 
may  be  held  by  attractions  which  are  foreign  to  the  real  purpose  of 
preaching;  and  congregations  gathered  upon  the  spur  of  such  incen- 
tives, and  entertained  with  such  repasts,  may  starve  for  spiritual  food, 
and  be  dismissed  without  feeling  those  alarming  convictions  and 

3 


34  CHRIST,    AND   HIM    CRUCIFIED, 

pressing  wants  which  God's  message  should  awaken  in  the  soul. 
True  power  is  displayed  in  affecting  the  conscience,  in  arousing  and 
stimulating  the  spiritual  life,  and  in  leaving  the  hearer  either  a  new 
creature  in  Christ,  or  without  excuse  in  the  rejection  of  the  Gospel. 

We  believe  that  power  like  this  is  to  be  attained  only  by  adhering 
to  the  Apostle's  resolve — by  knowing  nothing  but  Christ,  and  Him 
crucified.  Jesus  exclaimed,  "  and  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw  all 
men  unto  Me."  This  was  the  announcement  of  a  new  power  for  the 
regeneration  of  the  world.  The  lifting  up  of  Christr  shall  draw  all 
men.  It  is  an  attractive  and  subduing  power.  Nothing  else  can  reach 
the  inmost  depths  of  our  spiritual  nature,  or  meet  the  wants  of  a 
perishing  world.  It  is  God's  chosen  instrument  for  effecting  the 
salvation  of  men,  and  this  result  will  be  accomplished  through  the 
ministry,  just  in  proportion  as  the  ministry  is  faithful  in  present- 
ing it. 

And  because  it  is  in  companionship  with  this  doctrine  that  the 
mightiest  energies  of  the  Holy  Ghost  are  put  forth.  It  is  when  the 
atonement  is  thus  singly  presented,  that  the  Gospel  is  preached 
"  with  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from  Heaven,"  and  tho  cries  of 
conviction,  the  groans  of  penitence,  and  the  triumph  and  shouts  of 
faith,  are  heard.  Our  Lord  says  of  the  Spirit,  that  "  He  shall  glorify 
•Me ;  for  He  shall  receive  of  Mine,  and  show  it  unto  you."  In  the ' 
agency  of  the  Spirit,  the  promise  of  the  Saviour  is  fulfilled  to  His 
faithful  ministers.  "  And  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end 
of  the  world !  "  Apart  from  the  preaching  of  Christ  crucified,  the 
minister  has  no  right  to  expect  the  baptism  of  fire.  The  "  unction 
of  the  Holy  One"  is  his,  so  long  as  he  stands  by  the  Cross;  but  when 
Christ  is  hid  behind  self,  or  obscured  by  the  trivial  clap-trap  of 
pulpit  popularizing,  what  wonder  that  the  grieved  Spirit  takes  His 
flight?  How  often  is  the  blessed  Spirit  grieved,  and  driven  away 
from  our  pulpits,  by  this  cause  ?  The  Word  can  never  be  with  power 
without  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  we  cannot  have  the  Holy  Ghost  unless 
the  burden  of  our  preaching  be  Christ,  and  Him  ea-ucified. 
.  This  doctrine,  then,  secures  the  condition  of  pulpit  power.  With- 
out it,  a  Paul  plants  in  vain,  and  an  Apollos  waters  but  to  witness 
the  waste  of  his  labor.  With  it,  the  feeblest  instruments  are  strong, 
and  the  weakest  agents  become  the  honored  means  of  salvation. 
"  The  weapons  of  our  warfare  are  not  carnal,  but  mighty,  through 
God,  to  the  pulling  down  of  strong-holds."    Nothing  which  learning 


THE   EXCLUSIVE   THEME   OF   THE   PULPIT.  35 

can  bring  to  the  task,  nothing  which  eloquence  can  furnish,  neither 
the  gems  of  a  glowing  fancy  nor  the  embellishments  of  imagination, 
can  supply  the  place.  If  we  would  clothe  our  ministry  with  power, 
with  power  to  save,  Christ  must  be  lifted  up,  and  evidently  set  forth 
crucified.  The  Cross  must  stand  alone  in  its  sublime  simplicity. 
The  wealth  of  intellect  and  the  gifts  of  genius  must  bow  to  the  una- 
dorned grandeur  of  the  theme,  whilst  the  Lamb  of  God  is  presented 
in  bold  relief,  as  the  sole  object  to  which  the  faith  and  hope  of  the 
world  shall  be  directed. 

3.  The  preaching  of  Christ  is  more  than  anything  else  calculated 
to  develop  ministerial  zeal. 

One  of  our  greatest  wants  is  an  earnest  ministry.  The  demands 
which  are  made  for  a  learned  ministry  may  be  just  enough,  and  those 
provisions  which  are  being  made  to  secure  this  desirable  qualification 
may  be  every  way  laudable,  but  we  would  place  earnestness  as  more 
needed,  and  without  which  no  scholastic  culture  can  be  of  eminent 
use.  Without  earnestness,  the  ministry  is  a  self-stultification.  Christ 
crucified  leads  to  earnestness,  by  keeping  the  end  of  preaching  ever 
before  us.  This  end  is  to  save  souls,  and  the  preacher  is  wanting  in 
true  zeal  who  does  not  always  feel  this  burden  weighing  upon  him. 
The  atonement  is  a  call  of  mercy  to  them  that  perish,  and  the 
preacher  stands  between  the  remedy  and  its  application.  An  earnest, 
absorbing  purpose  must  that  be  which  draws  its  inspiration  from  this 
conception  of  the  position  occupied  by  the  minister  of  the  Gospel. 
There  is  no  ministerial  zeal,  where  this  vivid  conception  does  not 
obtain.  Animation,  stirring  activity,  noisy  declamation,  and  display 
of  varied  gifts,  there  may  be,  but  there  can  be  no  Christian  earnest- 
ness. The  earnestness  of  the  Gospel  is  an  earnestness  of  purpose, 
which  rebukes  every  worldly  and  sinister  end,  and  pronounces  its 
withering  anathemas  against  the  ministerial  demagogue  and  the 
truckling  sycophant  of  popular  applause.  The  Cross  develops  a 
character  of  large  sacrifice  and  of  heroic  self-denial.  It  is  a  lesson 
of  self-renunciation — a  crucifixion  unto  the  world.  A  sufi'ering 
ministry  gets  its  inspiration  from  the  doctrine  which  it  proclaims, 
and  is  at  once  the  illustration  and  enforcement  of  its  message. 
Nothing  but  the  love  of  Christ,  as  exhibited  in  His  death,  inspires 
the  ambassador  of  God  with  an  ardor  which  cannot  be  quenched. 
The  zeal  of  the  missionary  is  not  too  high  a  standard  for  the  entire 
ministry.     To  be  a  preacher  and  to  be  a  missionary  are  one,  and  he 


36  CHRIST,   AND   HIM   CRUCIFIED, 

is  neither  wlio  is  not  both.  Where  shall  the  fire  of  such  an  evan- 
gelism be  kindled  ?  It  is  in  the  Cross  alone.  But  let  the  Apostle 
answer  :  "For  the  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us;  because  we  thus 
judge,  that  if  One  died  for  all,  then  were  all  dead;  and  that  He  died 
for  all,  that  they  which  live  should  not  henceforth  live  unto  them- 
selves, but  unto  Him  which  died  for  them,  and  rose  again." 

4.  The  last  reason  which  we  notice  for  preaching  nothing  save 
Christ,  and  Him  crucified,  is,  that  in  no  other  way  can  the  Christian 
minister  meet  the  responsibility  which  devolves  upon  him. 

Human  accountability  is  a  momentous  fact.  In  every  conceivable 
condition,  it  is  momentous.  No  man  can  consider  it,  and  be  unmoved. 
Every  individual  life  has  its  weight  of  accountability,  but  that  of 
the  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  is  most  solemn — it  is  weightier  than 
any  other.  In  it,  all  the  elements  of  responsibility  are  intensified. 
As  stewards  of  the  grace  of  God,  the  salvation  of  immortal  souls  rests 
upon  the  faithful  discharge  of  our  duties.  Our  hearers  pass  from 
our  ministrations  to  the  bar  of  God,  and  there  we  must  meet  them  at 
last.  Other  particulars  enter  into  this  responsibility,  but  to  give 
account  of  souls  is  the  most  fearful.  In  comparison,  all  else  sinks 
into  insignificance.  The  serious  question  with  every  minister  is, 
how  am  I  to  meet  the  final  account?  We  know  not  how  it  can  "be 
met,  but  by  the  faithful  preaching  of  Christ,  and  Him  crucified. 
Then,  and  then  only,  can  he  affirm  with  any  assurance,,  "  I  am  free 
from  the  blood  of  all  men."  If  he  has  failed  in  declaring  the  whole 
counsel  of  God,  of  preaching  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ,  he 
has  failed  in  everything.  No  fallen  archangel  would  exchange  his 
condemnation  for  that  of  the  preacher  who  has  been  wanting  in 
fidelity  to  the  Cross. 

My  brethren,  the  hour  of  reckoning  is  coming.  With  some  of  us 
-  it  may  not  be  far  ofi";  and  oh,  what  fearful,  earnest  work  is  burs,  when 
the  power  of  the  world  to  come  is  felt  by  us,  and  when  eternity 
throws  around  us  its  mighty  shadows  !  Sure  we  are,  that  so  long  as 
we  listen  to  the  voice  of  eternity,  and  preach  amid^  the  solemn  con- 
victions of  the  coming  judgment,  we  shall  never  find  an  hour  which 
can  be  diverted  from  Christ  crucified  to  any  other  subject.  The 
dying  Summerfield  exclaimed  :  "  Oh,  if  I  might  be  raised  again,  how 
I  could  preach  !  I  could  preach  as  I  never  preached  before;  /  have 
had  a  hole  into  eternity  !  "  That  look  cannot  be  ours  until  our  lips 
ehall  grow  silent  in  death.     God  grant,  when  it  does  come,  and  our 


THE   EXCLUSIVE   THEME   OF   THE   PULPIT.  37 

"eyes  open  upon  its  awful  disclosures,  we  may  leave  bcliiud  us  the 
savor  of  the  Cross,  and  meet  within  the  vail  the  fruitions  of  that 
faith  and  hope  which  the  atonement  has  inspired ! 

If  a  sense  of  our  final  account  should  keep  us  near  to  Christ,  the 
pix>mised  rewards  of  a  faithful  ministry  should  not  be  lost  upon  us. 
The  whitening  fields  are  before  you ;  the  wages,  eternal  life !  "  And 
they  that  be  wise  shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament ; 
and  they  that  turn  many  to  righteousness,  as  the  stars  forever  and 
ever."  "  Cast  thy  bread  upon  the  waters ;  and  after  many  days  thou 
shalt  find  it  again."  You  need  faith  to  venture,  and  patience  to 
wait.  We  then,  as  workers  together  with  God,  beseech  you.  Go 
forth,  men  of  God,  go  forth;  sow  beside  all  waters.  Morning,  even-^ 
ing,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  preach  Christ,  for  your  reward  is 
sure. 

In  conclusion,  Christ,  and  Him  crucified,  is  the  preaching  for  the 
times;  or,  rather,  it  is  the  preaching  for  all  time.  ''  Jesus  Christ,  the 
same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever." 

There  is  in  certain  quarters  a  growing  demand  for  preaching 
adapted  to  the  times.  This  striving  for  adaptation  is  one  of  the 
greatest  evils  which  threaten  the  modern  pulpit.  It  goes  upon  the 
supposition  that  the  Gospel  can  be  made  palatable  to  the  carnal 
mind,  that  the  ofience  of  the  Cross  has  ceased,  and  that  it  is  no 
longer  to  the  Jews  a  stumbling  block,  and  to  the  Greeks^  foolishness. 
Human  nature  is  the  same.  The  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  God 
now,  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Paul.  The  heresies  which  the  ministry 
is  called  to  combat  are  scattered  over  the  entire  field  of  ecclesiastical 
history.  They  rise  and  set  like  the  stars ;  they  come  and  go  with 
the  periodicity  of  the  comets,  but  they  are  essentially  the  same. 
Respecting  them  it  may  be  affirmed  that  "  there  is  nothing  new 
under  the  sun."  The  preaching  which  was  adapted  to  the  apostolic 
age  is  not  unsuited  to  ours.  The  preaching  on  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost and  of  Mars  Hill  would  need  no  modification  for  these  times. 
In  reaching  after  a  temporary  adaptation,  it  is  not  impossible  that 
we  shall  ignore  the  Cross,  and  attain  at  last  to  the  drivelling  wisdom 
of  words. 

If  the  pulpit  is  not  adapted  to  the  times,  it  is  because  we  have 
failed  to  carry  out  the  determination  of  the  text.  The  Gospel 
preached  with  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from  Heaven,  is  the  Gospel 
and  the  preaching  for  every  age.    A  fresher  utterance  we  may  strive 


38  CHRIST,   AND   HIM   CRUCIPIED,   ETC. 

after,  but  it  will  be  in  vain  if  we  seek  it  elsewhere  than  in  an 
increased  devotion  to  the  atonement  as  the  subject  of  our  preaching. 
With  minds  imbued  with  this  great  truth,  we  shall  come  to  the  task- 
fresh  as  the  morning,  and  from  hearts  gushing  with  tenderness,  and 
overflowing  with  love,  we  shall  be  able  to  speak  as  the  oracles  of  God. 
Let  us  then,  my  brethren,  gather  ai"Ound  the  Cross,  and  vow  unfal- 
tering fidelity  in  proclaiming  Christ,  and  Him  crucified,  to  a  dying 
world.  Let  us,  in  this  sacred  hour,  lift  our  hearts  to  our  crucified 
and  risen  Lord,  and  pray  for  the  pentecostal  grace  which  shall  send 
us  forth  as  burning  and  sliinina;  lisihts. 


S.  /^i,uz^ 


^yl£ft:TES 


THE    BELIEVER'S    PRIVILEaE. 


BY    E.    YEATES    REESE,    D.    D., 

EDITOR  OP  THE  METHODIST  PROTESTANT. 


Now,  the  God  of  hope  fill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace  in  believing,  that  ye 
may  abound  in  hope,  through  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost. — Romans,  xv,  13. 

It  is  a  sad  truth  that  we  live  in  a  world  of  sin.  Speculations  on 
the  assumed  rectitude  of  human  nature  cannot  change  the  realities 
of  life.  The  melancholy  evidences  of  a  common  proneness  to  evil 
are  fearfully  apparent  everywhere.  The  slavery  of  sin  is  universal, 
and  its  consequent  misery  so  darkens  the  pathway  of  man,  from 
infancy  to  the  tomb,  that  Inspiration  has  well  recorded  our  present 
life,  as  "of  few  days,  and  full  of  trouble." 

The  effort  to  solve  the  problem  of  the  introduction  of  moral  evil  is 
utterly  fruitless.  No  man  has  ever  been  able  successfully  to  grapple 
with  its  subtle  mysteries.  Philosophy  may  stagger  and  grow  blind, 
in  its  ambitious  endeavors  to  harmonize  imagined  inconsistencies 
with  the  wisdom  and  justice  of  the  Infinite  Being  who  made  usj  a 
shallow,  haughty,  and  self-complacent  skepticism  may  assume  to  set 
aside,  with  dogmatic  sneer,  the  plain  teaching  of  the  Word  of  God 
upon  this  subject;  but  nothing  can  blot  out  the  facts  of  our  exist- 
ence. Here  they  are,  part  and  parcel  of  our  consciousness ;  and  the 
experience  of  to-day,  in  guilt  and  misery,  in  estrangement  from  God 
and  hostility  to  holiness,  is  but  the  reproduced  experience  of  all  the 
past.  When  our  first  parents  came  forth,  sin-smitten,  from  Eden, 
they  brought  with  them  the  bitterness  of  the  curse.  Antagonism  to 
God  had  become  incarnate.  Ever  since,  this  has  been  the  state  of 
man.  "  By  one  man,  sin  entered  into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin, 
and  so  death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  that  all  have  sinned." 

Our  glorious  Gospel,  my  brethren,  is  the  only  antidote  to  sin — the 
only  hope  of  the  world.    God  is  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto 


40  THE   believer's   PRIVILEGE. 

Himself.  The  phraseology  of  the  Gospel  is  distinct  and  significant. 
It  speaks  of  justification,  regeneration,  sanctifieation,  thorough  reform- 
ation ;  of  holiness  of  heart  and  recovered  happiness.  It  presents  these 
as  the  legitimate  workings  of  the  grace  of  God  that  bringeth  salvation. 
It  proposes  the  mastery  of  the  carnal,  the  re-creation  of  the  spiritual. 
It  takes  away  enmity,  and  enthrones  in  its  stead  a  love  of  God's  law. 
"  A  new  heart  will  I  give  unto  you ; "  and  "  if  any  man  be  in  Christ, 
he  is  a  new  creature ;  old  things  are  passed  away,  and  behold  all 
things  are  become  new."  In  its  earnest  and  afiFectionate  exhortations, 
its  abundant  and  precious  promises,  it  offers  light  to  those  in  dark- 
ness, liberty  to  those  in  bondage,  joy  to  the  sorrowful,  peace  to  the 
weary  and  heavy  laden,  hope  to  the  despairing,  and  life  and  immor- 
tality to  those  who  are  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins. 

Christianity,  then,  is  intended  to  aficct  human  experience.  To 
what  extent,  is  a  most  momentous  question.  To  determine  truth  in 
this  particular,  is  to  determine  the  worth  of  the  Christian  relation  in 
its  direct  influence  upon  man's  present  state.  Few  subjects  can  be 
more  worthy  the  attention  of  a  Christian  congregation ;  yet  there  is 
reason  to  apprehend  that,  even  among  believers,  few  subjects  are 
more  imperfectly  understood.  We  are  apt  to  measure  the  extent  of 
both  Christian  responsibility  and  Christian  experience  by  the  illus- 
trations of  it  which  may  immediately  surround  us.  The  spiritual 
life,  however,  in  any  congregation,  may  be  very  far  below  the  scrip- 
tural standard,  just  as  the  sense  of  Christian  responsibility  frequently 
is ;  so  that,  in  determining  a  question  of  this  sort,  we  should  look 
away  from  our  immediate  surroundings,  beyond  those  living  illustra- 
tions of  its  power,  with  which  we  come  in  social  and  fraternal  con- 
tact, to  higher,  more  certain,  and  infallible  authority.  It  is  not  that 
I  may  be  able  to  ascertain  what  spiritual  victories  my  brother  may 
-have  achieved,  or  what  is  the  measure  of  my  own  experience,  past 
or  present ;  the  great  question  is,  what  docs  our  glorious  Gosjjel  pro- 
pose to  do  for  him  who,  in  the  use  of  all  the  means  of  grace  afforded, 
trusts  implicitly  to  its  teachings,  and  yields  himself  to  its  full  con- 
trol ?  We  all  rejoice  to  believe  that  it  is  tlie  poiver  of  God  unto  salva- 
tion to  every  one  that  helievetli ;  but  is  there  not  reason  to  fear  that 
we  too  often  abridge  th^  comprehensive  significance  of  this  and  kin- 
dred passages,  and  in  the  blindness  of  unbelief,  staggering  at  the 
promises,  disregard  its  profiered  blessings  in  the  present,  by  setting 
its  glorious  conquests  too  remotely  in  the  future ;  by  recognising  in 


THE   believer's    PRIVILEGE.  41 

its  salvation  too  little  mastery  over  present  evil,  too  limited  a  con- 
trol over  the  vicissitudes  of  every-day  life,  and  tlieir  tendency  to  fill 
us  with  that  distrust  of  Providence  and  sorrow  of  soul  which  so  often 
afflict  the  people  of  God  ? 

Christianity,  my  brethren,  either  proposes  a  high  attainment  of 
spiritual  comfort  in  this  life,  to  which  all  discomfort  shall  be  sub- 
ordinate, or  it  does  not.  It  proposes  to  temper  the  fierceness  of  every 
assault  of  temptation,  brighten  the  gloom  of  every  cloud  of  sorrow, 
and,  dwelling  richly  in  the  soul,  diffuse  there  a  peace  which  "  noth- 
ing earthly  gives  or  can  destroy,"  or  it  does  not.  If  it  does  not, 
then  to  aspire  after  it  is  zeal  without  knowledge ;  to  preach  it,  is 
fanaticism.  But  if  the  Gospel  does  come  to  man  with  such  a  bless- 
ing; if  its  whispers  of  peace,  and  rest,  and  assurance,  and  confidence, 
and  hope,  and  joy,  and  walking  by  faith,  and  not  by  sight;  if  its  re- 
joicing in  hope,  its  patience  in  tribulation,  its  thankfulness  in  all 
things,  its  abounding  righteousness,  be  not  unmeaning  rhetoric,  but 
absolute,  significant,  all-glorious  truth — truth  setting  forth  the  com- 
mon privilege  of  all  partakers  of  a  like  precious  faith,  through  the 
sacrifice  and  mediation  of  a  common  Saviour  and  High  Priest — then 
is  it  evident  that  he  is  living  immeasurably  beneath  his  responsibility 
and  privilege,  who,  bearing  the  name  of  Christ,  does  not  press  to- 
wards its  attainment,  seek  after  the  glorious  possession,  until,  placing 
his  feet  upon  this  high  vantage  ground  of  scriptural,  assurance,  he 
shall  be  able  to  take  to  him  the  whole  armor  of  God,  that  he  may  be 
able  to  withstand  in  the  evil  day,  and,  having  done  all,  to  stand. 

Have  you  never  been  struck,  my  brethren,  with  the  wonderful 
zeal  into  which  the  Apostle  Paul  kindles,  whenever  this  matter  of 
Christian  experience  becomes  the  theme  of  his  discourse  ?  Next  to 
direct  allusion  to  the  Cross — in  which  he  saw  symbolized  all  the  stu- 
pendous achievements  of  the  Son  of  God  for  us,  both  as  it  respects 
this  life  and  that  which  is  to  come — there  is  nothing  which  so  tasks, 
as  it  were,  his  marvellous  power  of  exhaustive  expression.  The  life 
of  Christ  in  the  soul,  and  its  consequent  victories  over  sin,  as  real- 
ized in  the  experience  of  him  who  goes  forth  to  combat  in  the  pos- 
session of  weapons,  mighty  through  God  to  the  pulling  down  of 
strongholds,  lifts  him  to  a  transport  of  utterance,  in  which  words 
seem  all  too  feeble  to  represent  the^astness  of  his  conceptions  of  the 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  The  text  is  a  specimen  of  that  wonderful 
verbal  compass  for  which  Paul  is  so  remarkable,  suggesting  even 


42  THE  believer's  privilege. 

more  than  it  expresses.  Would  it  be  fair  to  infer  that,  in  these  broad 
and  emphatic  utterances,  the  enthusiasm  of  the  teacher  has  led  him 
into  exaggerated  representations,  and  that,  after  all,  they  are  to  be 
re"-arded  as  the  impetuous  exhibitions  of  his  individual  zeal,  rather 
than  the  landmarks  of  great  and  unchanging  truth  ?  Hear  him  : 
"  Now,  the  God  of  hope  Jill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace  in  he- 
lleving,  that  ye  may  abound  in  liope,  through  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."  Whatever  this  may  signify  as  an  intelligent  petition,  surely 
it  is  within  reach  of  the  believer  to  attain  and  to  enjoy. 

The  words,  "fill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace,"  are  very  emphatic. 
They  cannot  be  intended  to  express  a  limited  and  imperfect  state  of 
confidence  and  enjoyment.  That  the  Roman  converts,  in  accepting 
the  truths  of  the  Gospel,  had  known  something  of  the  joy  and  peace 
it  is  its  mission  to  bring,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  The  history  of  the 
early  disciples  is  a  record  glowing  with  the  victories  of  personal  ex- 
perience. Of  doubt,  distrust,  moanings  over  temptation,  murmur- 
ings,  dissatisfaction  with  the  allotments  of  Providence,  such  as  are 
now  frequently  heard,  very  little  is  recorded ;  but,  in  their  stead,  we 
have  triumphant  prayer  amid  bonds  and  stripes,  and  even  during 
the  agonies  of  martyrdom.  We  listen  to  jubilant  songs  from  the 
gloom  of  midnight  imprisonment,  bearing  away  the  soul  to  so  near 
an  approach  to  the  Omnipotent,  that  prison-bolts  are  drawn  and  fet- 
ters smitten  by  the  mighty  power  of  our  God  through  faith.  When, 
therefore,  the  Apostle  here  prays  that  his  brethren  may  \)Q  filled  \iiih. 
a??  joy  and  peace  in  believing,  I  conclude  that,  whatever  their  joy 
and  peace  may  have  been,  it  was  not  complete.  There  were  heights 
not  yet  scaled,  depths  not  yet  sounded,  glorious  trophies  not  yet  won, 
achievements  to  which  they  had  not  yet  risen,  but  to  which  it  was 
their  privilege  to  rise.  In  the  spirit  of  a  faithful  preacher  of  right- 
eousness, he  would  have  them  soar  from  inferior  to  superior  joy; 
have  them  know,  not  simply  the  dawn  of  that  peace  which,  dispersing 
the  thicker  darkness  of  the  mind,  fills  the  soul  with  a  twilight  of 
hope  and  assurance,  but  be  able  to  stand  amid  the  clearer  light  of  the 
uprisen  Sun  of  Righteousness ;  that,  "  being  rooted  and  grounded  in 
love,  they  might  be  able  to  comprehend,  with  all  saints,  what  is  the 
breadth  and  length,  and  depth  and  height,  and  to  know  the  love  of 
Christ  which  passeth  knowledge,  that  they  might  be  filled  with  the 
fullness  of  God." 

And  surely,  in  claiming  this  high  privilege  for  the  believer,  the 


THE  believer's   PRIVILEGE.  43 

Apostle  did  not  go  beyond  the  written  testimony  of  the  Word  itself. 
Joy  and  peace  are  not  now  for  the  first  time  associated  with  the  Gos- 
pel. "  Behold,  I  bring  you  glad  tidings  oi  great  joy,"  said  the  herald 
Angel  to  the  shepherd  sages.  "  And  suddenly  there  was  with  the 
Angel  a  multitude  of  the  heavenly  host,  praising  God,  and  saying, 
"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth  peace."  This  was  the 
annunciation  of  Him  who  is  "the  Prince  of  Peace."  What  wonder 
that  joy  and  peace  should  ever  after  be  the  signal  blessings  of  an 
enlarged  experience  in  Christ  Jesus ! 

Moreover,  in  speaking  of  the  fullness  or  completeness  of  these,  as 
the  master  principles  of  soul-emotion,  the  Apostle  had  found  authority 
for  his  utterance  in  the  teaching  of  the  Son  of  God  Himself.  In 
that  touching  discourse  delivered  by  the  Saviour,  just  before  the 
agony  of  Gethsemane — the  farewell  address  of  the  Son  of  man  to  His 
beloved  disciples — He  thus  addressed  them :  "  Continue  ye  in  my 
love.  If  ye  keep  my  commandments,  ye  shall  abide  in  my  love,  even 
as  I  have  kept  my  Father's  commandments,  and  abide  in  His  love. 
These  things  have  I  spoken  unto  you,  that  ray  joy  might  remain  in 
you,  and  that  your  joy  might  be  full."  And  elsewhere,  in  the  same 
tender  and  soul-moving  discourse,  "  Peace  I  leave  with  you.  My 
peace  I  give  unto  you;  not  as  the  world  giveth,  give  I  unto  you." 

Paul  was  not  ignorant  of  these  teachings.  He  had  pondered  their 
import,  and  knew  what  a  blessing  to  the  world  was  involved  in  the 
benediction  thus  spoken.  Here  may  be  found  the  key  to  his  seem- 
ing enthusiasm.  All  around  him,  men  were  laboring  as  they  now 
labor,  for  joy  and  peace,  where  joy  and  peace  were  not  to  be  found. 
In  Christ,  he  saw  a  fullness  for  all  mortal  "  need."  His  great  heart 
swelled  with  grateful  and  adoring  love  to  God,  and  with  sympathetic 
love  for  his  fellows,  as  he  contemplated  the  exact  adaptation  of 
the  Gospel  to  the  wretchedness  of  poor  sinners.  It  was  a  mighty 
achievement  to  lift  the  soul  from  its  profound  wretchedness  of  sin, 
into  the  light  of  holiness,  and  crown  it  with  "joy  and  peace  in 
believing,"  but  the  work  was  not  of  man,  and  therefore  the  Apostle's 
faith  faltered  not.  With  what  a  glorious  doxology  does  he  celebrate 
His  glory  who  "  worketh  in  us "  this  astonishing  transformation  : 
"  Now,  unto  Him  who  is  able  to  do  exceeding  abundantly  above  all 
that  we  ask  or  think,  according  to  the  power  that  worketh  in  us,  to 
Him  be  all  glory,  in  the  church,  by  Christ  Jesus,  world  without  end. 
Amen."     Here  his  faith  looks  to  limitless  ability  for  the  accomplish- 


44  THE  believer's  privilege. 

ment  of  all  that  his  anticipations  might  promise ;  and  the  very  words 
seem  to  tremble  beneath  the  mightiness  of  the  thought  they  suggest. 
You  will  observe,  my  brethren,  the  importance  which  the  Apostle 
attaches  to  unfaltering  belief  "  Now,  the  God  of  hope  fill  you  with 
all  joy  and  peace  in  helieving."  St.  Peter,  speaking  of  the  ascended 
Redeemer,  says,  ''whom  having  not  seen,  ye  love;  in  whom,  though 
now  ye  see  Him  iiot,7/et  helieving,  ye  rejoice  tvitlijoy  unspeakable  and 
full  of  glory."  All  the  triumphs  of  the  Christian  relation,  in  the 
mastery  of  a  love  of  the  world,  in  the  possession  of  that  "  peace  of 
God  "  which  is  "  to  rule  our  hearts,"  are  suspended  upon  faith.  In 
the  nature  of  man,  this  is  necessarily  so.  The  words  of  the  Master, 
"  according  to  your  faith,  so  be  it  unto  ymi,"  reveal  the  philosophy, 
not  only  of  spiritual  success,  but  of  all  moral,  intellectual,  and 
physical  triumphs.  Take  away  faith,  and  you  paralyze  hope,  and  com- 
pass the  world  in  the  foldings  of  despair.  All  great  achievements 
find  here  their  stalling  point,  for  in  the  power  of  man  to  believe,  lies 
his  power  to  execute.  Faith  is  the  strength  of  the  individual ;  faith 
is  the  sovereign  power  of  the  world.  This  principle  is  easily  enough 
understood  in  its  application  to  the  present  and  the  secular.  Had 
there  been  no  faith  in  the.  ability  of  the  electric  current  to  transmit 
human  thought  from  one  point  to  another,  no  such  thing  as  a  mag- 
netic telegraph  had  ever  challenged  the  admiration  of  men.  Belief 
is  the  antecedent  to  all  energetic  action.  It  is  so  in  religion.  Trans- 
fer to  the  spiritual  the  principle  thus  illustrated  in  connection  with 
the  physical,  and  how  entirely  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  mind, 
under  which  we  constantly  act,  is  the  idea  that  a  man's  spiritual 
victories  shall  be  in  exact  proportion  to  his  faith  in  God. 

The  Gospel  comes  to  us  as  Divine  truth,  gloriously  attested. 
Faith  accepts  it,  not  simply  in  the  manner  of  a  mental  assent  to 
historical  narration,  or  as  a  system  of  correct  moral  sentiment,  but 
as  spiritual  truth,  in  which  are  involved  those  living  principles  which 
are  to  be  wrought  into  the  texture  of  the  believer's  life,  by  which 
he  is  to  be  quickened  into  a  full  acceptance  of  its  gracious  privileges 
and  precious  promises,  and  with  a  hearty  recognition  of  its  Divine 
authority,  "  live  henceforth  not  unto  himself,  but  unto  God." 

By  believing,  then,  we  understand  the  soul's  unshaken  repose  upon 
the  truths  set  forth  in  the  Gospel.  In  the  very  nature  of  the  pro- 
visions of  revelation,  this  is  requisite  to  spiritual  enjoyment.  Where 
confidence  in  assurances  of  God's  holy  Word  is  wavering  and  unsta- 


THE  believer's   PRIVILEGE.  45 

ble ;  where  the  things  of  the  present  life  crowd  in  upon  the  spirit, 
claiming  those  moments  which  should  be  consecrated  to  heavenly 
communing ;  where  undue  importance  is  attached  to  the  things  that 
are  seen,  and  the  realities  of  the  invisible,  as  subjects  of  thought 
and  feeling,  are  put  afar  off;  who  can  wonder  that  such  joy  and 
peace  as  come  only  to  the  believing  should  be  almost  unknown  to 
us,  and  our  religion  degenerate,  if  not  into  a  dead  form,  into  an 
almost  powerless  profession  ?  On  the  other  hand,  where  the  soul  is 
alive  to  God  and  the  communications  of  His  revealed  Word ;  where 
the  invitations  of  the  Gospel  are  met  by  the  full,  constant,  unreserved 
responses  of  the  heart;  where  the  influences  of  the  Spirit  are  ear- 
nestly sought,  and  gratefully  welcomed ;  where  Christ  in  all  His  holy 
relations,  as  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King,  is  enthroned  in  the  affections, 
and  permitted  to  rule  in  the  life;  who  shall  wonder  that  joy  and 
peace  in  believing  should  be  the  legitimate  and  inevitable  result  ? 
A  glance  at  ourselves  would,  to  be  sure,  be  sufficient,  at  any  moment, 
to  dampen  our  rejoicing,  and  plunge  us  into  a  vortex  of  hopelessness, 
were  we  not  permitted  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  Him  who  ever  lives, 
our  ascended  High  Priest  and  Intercessor.  That  glimpse,  however, 
should  dispel  all  gloom,  and  awaken  joy  unspeakable.  The  faith 
with  which  we  contemplate  His  sacrifice.  His  death  and  meritorious 
offering,  His  glorious  mediation,  should  be  a  confident,  unfaltering, 
and  rejoicing  faith.  For  here,  and  here  alone,  is  God's  special  pledge 
to  the  believer ;  a  pledge  of  present  succor  and  of  future  and  eternal 
triumph.  He  lives;  and  because  He  lives,  we  shall  live  also.  "  For 
if  when  we  were  enemies  we  were  reconciled  to  God  by  the  death 
of  His  Son,  much  more,  being  reconciled,  we  shall  be  saved  by  His 
life." 

Allow  me  here,  my  brethren,  to  remark,  that  this  state  of  joy  and 
peace  in  believing  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  a  stoical  insensibility 
to  the  sorrows  and  calamities  which  daily  surround  us.  It  consists 
not  in  a  constant  exhilaration  that  regards  with  unconcern  all  sub- 
lunary anxieties,  and,  crushing  out  the  common  sensibilities  of  our 
nature,  frees  us  from  all  sympathy  with  the  bitterness  and  disappoint- 
ment which  fill  up  the  measure  of  every  man's  experience  on  earth. 
It  must  not  be  mistaken  for  an  unsubstantial  and  purely  emotional 
state  of  mind,  which  feeds  itself  on  visions,  and  indulges  in  rhapsodi- 
cal dreams.  We  are  yet  in  the  flesh.  The  discipline  of  trial  and 
temptation  is  not  completed.     Satan  is  still  our  watchful  foe.     What 


46  THE  believer's  privilege. 

we  do  claim  as  the  believer's  privilege  is,  not  an  exemption  from 
earthly  sorrow,  not  a  deliverance  from  buffeting  and  fierce  conflicts, 
not  an  insensibility  to  those  shocks  of  disaster  to  which  he  is  every 
moment  just  as  liable  as  other  men,  but  the  possession  of  a  living 
principle  in  the  soul,  which  rises  above  them,  and  holds  them  under  a 
resolute  mastery,  which  imparts  a  calm  acquiescence  in  the  dispen- 
sations of  an  all-wise  Providence,  a  firm  reliance  on  the  out-working 
of  His  gracious  purposes,  and  a  steadfast  rejoicing  in  every  time  of 
trouble.  For,  amid  the  fiercest  conflicts,  we  have  the  assurance  that 
grace  will  be  afforded  according  to  our  need.  The  way  of  escape 
will  be  opened,  and  the  natural  result  of  strong,  unfaltering  confi- 
dence in  God,  will  be  the  creation  of  a  hope,  wrought  in  us  by  expe- 
rience, which  will  bring  to  us  an  earnest  of  future  and  eternal  good. 
Hope,  in  the  natural  order  of  the  emotions,  stands  related  to  despair 
as  its  opposite.  Wherever  it  lives,  sorrow  is  not  complete.  Where 
it  abounds,  joy  and  peace  quicken  into  lively  exercise.  It  is  the 
province  of  hope  to  turn  sorrow  into  joy,  and  kindle  smiles  that 
beautify  the  tears  which  affliction  wrings  from  the  heart  of  the  suf- 
ferer. Hope,,  such  as  that  which  the  text  recognises,  maketh  not 
ashamed,  does  not  disappoint.  It  bears  the  signet  of  Divine  creation, 
because  the  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  the  heart  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  which  is  given  unto  us.  Earthly  hopes  disappoint  us.  They 
mock  us  by  recreating  themselves,  only  to  end  in  final  defeat.  But 
in  Christ  we  have  hope  as  "  an  anchor,  sure  and  steadfast."  The 
abounding  of  this  hope — that  is,  its  realized  influence  in  the  soul  of 
the  believer — will  go  far  towards  transforming  earth  into  a  paradise. 
For  ''  faith  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of 
things  not  seen."  The  future  and  the  invisible  become,  as  it  were, 
present  and  tangible ;  and  though  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard, 
nor  heart  conceived,  the  things  that  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that 
love  Him,  yet  are  they  revealed  to  us  by  the  unutterable  communi- 
cations of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Hence,  our  Gospel  speaks  of  '^  rejoicing 
in  hope,"  of  "full  assurance  of  hope,"  of  "a  lively  hope,"  of  ''  the 
hope  of  glory,"  of  "  that  blessed  hope,"  and  of  "  strong  consolation," 
as  the  possession  of  them  who  "  have  fled  for  refuge  to  lay  hold  on  the 
hope  set  before  them."  Depend  upon  it,  brethren,  there  is  a  signifi- 
cance in  these  phrases  which  we  are  slow  to  appreciate  and  improve. 
And,  surely,  no  loftier  petition,  no  more  comprehensive  desire,  could 
have  moved  the  lips  and  glowed  in  the  heart  of  the  Apostle,  pleading 


THE  believer's   PRIVILEGE.  47 

for  the  spiritual  triumph  of  his  brethren,  than  this :  "  May  the  God 
of  hope  fill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace  in  believing,  that  ye  may 
abound  in  hope,  through  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

The  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost !  Here  is  the  great  instrumentality. 
Nothing  else  can  lift  us  into  this  state  of  abounding  hope.  All 
spiritual  life  comes  by  this  power.  To  the  unregenerate,  this  lan- 
guage is  mysterious,  if  not  unmeaning;  for  "the  natural  man  receiveth 
not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  for  they  are  foolishness  unto  him; 
neither  can  he  know  them,  for  they  are  spiritually  discerned."  But 
the  experience  of  countless  thousands  has  verified  our  Lord's  declara- 
tion, "  ye  hnow  Him."  When  the  Comforter  should  come.  He  was  to 
dwell  with  the  disciples,  and  to  be  in  them.  This  is  true  in  regard 
to  every  converted  man.  The  change  which  the  term  itself  implies, 
all  the  processes  of  the  gracious  work,  from  the  first  dawn  of  con- 
sideration, the  first  throb  of  penitential  sorrow,  the  first  gleam  of 
peace  with  God,  through  the  exercise  of  justifying  faith,  to  its 
highest  aboundings  of  hope,  are  the  workings  of  this  mighty  power 
within  us.  The  New  Testament  is  replete  with  distinct  teaching 
upon  this  point.  Here  alone,  the  soul  of  man,  in  its  loftiest  aspira- 
tions, meets  that  which  can  assuage  its  thirst  and  satisfy  its  hunger, 
for  here  alone  is  it  brought  into  spiritual  communication  with  its 
Father  and  its  God. 

The  phrase,  "  ahound  in  hope,"  is  suggestive  of  degrees  in  the 
enjoyment  or  consciousness  of  this  blessing.  Hope  may  exist,  where 
hope  can  hardly  be  said  to  abound.  In  like  manner,  there  are  de- 
grees in  which  the  Spirit  of  God  is  manifested  in  the  heart.  What- 
ever of  spiritual  comfort  any  man  here  has  ever  known,  it  was  wrought 
in  him  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  to  receive  the  Holy 
Ghost,  is  one  thing ;  to  be  "  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,"  is  another. 
To  be  partaker  of  the  hope  of  the  Gospel,  is  one  thing ;  to  abound 
in  hope,  is  another.  The  Apostle  sets  the  latter  a.s  a  high  mark 
before  those  to  whom  he  writes.  He  evidently  regarded  it  as  an 
attainable  grace.  He  ofi"ers  petition  after  petition  to  this  end,  in 
behalf  of  his  brethren.  He  encourages  them  with  the  assurance  that 
God  is  "able  to  make  all  grace  abound"  towards  them.  He  reminds 
them  that  Jehovah  hath  said  to  His  people,  "  I  will  dwell  in  them, 
and  walk  in  them,  and  I  will  be  their  God,  and  they  shall  be  My 
people  J "  and  from  these  promises.  He  exhorts  them  to  "  perfect 
holiness  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord."     Rich  and  deep  as  was  his  own 


48  THE  believer's  privilege. 

experience,  the  exhaustless  provision  he  himself  claims  not  to  have 
measured ;  but  as  an  example  to  his  brethren,  leading  in  the  van, 
and  flushed  with  past  victories,  he  exclaims,  as  he  beckons  them 
onward :  "  Brethren,  I  count  not  myself  to  have  apprehended,  but 
this  one  thing  I  do,  forgetting  the  things  which  are  behind,  and 
reaching  to  those  things  which  are  before,  I  press  toward  the  mark 
for  the  prize  of  my  high  calling  of  God,  in  Christ  Jesus." 

The  recognition  of  the  great  truth  suggested  by  the  concluding 
words  of  the  text  is  of  the  last  importance  to  us,  not  ojily  as  individ- 
uals, but  as  a  church.  All  our  power  to  be  what  a  church  should  be, 
to  do  what  a  church  should  do,  lies  here.  "  Without  Me,  ye  can  do 
nothing."  The  might  of  the  Spirit  is  what  Christians  want,  to  ena- 
ble them  to  go  forward,  conquering  and  to  conquest.  It  must  quicken 
our  prayers,  kindle  our  songs,  illuminate  our  understandings,  pene- 
trate our  hearts,  and  vitalize  all  our  religious  efforts,  or  they  will 
avail  nothing.  Learning  is  powerless,  eloquence  is  powerless,  the 
ministry  is  powerless,  in  the  accomplishment  of  the  great  spiritual 
results  which  the  Gospel  contemplates,  if  they  be  without  the  aid  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  All  the  machinery  of  modern  Christendom,  gigantic 
and  full  of  promise  as  it  is,  when  allied  to  this  spiritual  agency,  can 
never  give  to  the  church  its  true  moral  power,  can  never  accelerate 
the  final  triumphs  of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom.  Let  us  not  lose 
sight  of  this  great  truth — our  help  is  in  God  !  In  the  possession  of 
enlarged  facilities  of  a  purely  physical  character,  there  is  great  dan- 
ger that  the  source  of  true  power  may  be  overlooked,  and  a  pride  of 
mere  material  and  show,  and  a  reliance  upon  them,  take  the  place  of 
an  earnest  zeal  for  the  spirituality  of  the  Gospel. 

Yonder  gigantic  steamer  impresses  the  beholder  with  what  he 
calls  the  power  of  machinery.  He  looks  at  her  massive  proportions, 
he  examines  her  huge  and.  well-polished  levers,  he  pauses  with 
amazement  to  witness  the  rapid  revolutions  of  her  mammoth  wheels, 
and  goes  away  filled  with  wonder  at  the  triumph  of  inventive  power. 
But  the  power  of  the  machinery  lies  not  in  anything  he  has  seen. 
All  that  has  no  power,  except  as  it  is  acted  upon.  All  that  wonderful 
contrivance  is  secondary,  not  primary.  The  mechanism  is  valueless, 
unless  an  element  altogether  distinct  from  itself  shall  be  introduced. 
This  once  superadded,  and  the  huge  structure  moves  majestically,  in 
accomplishment  of  the  great  purpose  for  which  it  was  designed.  An 
artisan,  who  should  devise  and  execute  without  constant  reference  to 


THE   believer's   PRIVILEGE.  49 

•  this  principle,  would  bring  upon  himself  the  scorn  of  the  scientific, 
and  the  sure  mortification  of  defeat.  He  must  never  foro-et  the 
motive  power.  To  its  requirements,  everything  must  be  made  sub- 
ordinate. And  if  this  is  true  in  nature,  how  much  more  in  grace. 
Of  what  avail  are  all  the  externals  of  religion,  the  graces  of  rhetoric 
the  generous  gifts  of  liberal  hands  in  prompt  responses  to  calls  for 
pecuniary  aid — all  organization,  forms,  ceremonies,  church  appli- 
ances—of what  avail  are  they  all,  if  they  be  not  subordinated  and 
controlled  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

How,  then,  may  this  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  be  secured  ?  To 
you,  to  me,  to  every  Christian,  to  all  churches,  what  other  question 
rises  above  this  ?  Who  shall  solve  it  for  us  ?  Let  the  Master  speak; : 
"  If  ye,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto  your  children, 
how  much  more  shall  your  Heavenly  Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
them  that  ask  Him."  Oh,  for  faith  to  believe  !  "  Ask,  and  it  sliaU 
he  given  jon;  seek,  and  ye  s/taZ/ find ;  knock,  and  it  shall  he  opened 
unto  your  Is  not  this  enough  ?  Falters  our  faith  still  ?  Hesitate 
our  anxious,  seeking  hearts  ?  Jesus  would  give  us  assurance.  Listen 
again  :  "  For  every  one  that  as/cefh,  receiveth,  and  he  that  secketh, 
Jindeth,  and  to  him  that  hnocketh,  it  shall  he  02)e7ied!  "  There  is  the 
promise  of  your  Master,  and  mine !  Is  it  trustworthy  ?  Heaven 
and  earth  may  pass  away,  but  the  Word  of  the  Lord  abideth  forever. 
And,  now,  may  the  God  of  hope  fill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace 
in  believing,  that  ye  may  abound  in  hope,  through  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost. 


,:-8Ew.  (z:m,  fBOJ-^i 


VAIN    THOUaHTS 


BY   REV.    C.    M.   BUTLER,    D.   D., 

EECTOR    OF    TEINITT    CHDECH,   WASHINGTON,     D.     C. 


0  Jerusalem,  wash  thine  heart  from  wickedness,  that  thou  mayest  be  saved ! 
How  long  shall  thy  vain  thoughts  lodge  within  thee? — Jeremiah,  iv,  14. 

The  soul  of  man  is  here  represented  as  a  dwelling,  and  vain  thoughts 
as  guests  or  lodgers. 

In  the  hearts  of  the  Jews,  such  thoughts  lodged.  Judgment  was 
about  to  overtake  them.  The  Babylonians  were  soon  to  be  upon 
them.  Yet  the  "  vain  thoughts ''  of  security,  and  of  God's  certain 
protection,  were  fixed  in  their  hearts.  They  arose  from  their  "  wick- 
edness." Jeremiah  could  not  dislodge  them.  He  directed  against 
them  in  vain  God's  sure  words.  Argument,  illustration,  demonstra- 
tion, and  threatenings,  failed.  "Wickedness"  kept  them  there. 
Hence,  seeing  the  futility  of  proof,  while  the  wickedness  remained, 
he  cried,  "  Oh  Jerusalem,  wash  thine  heart  from  wickedness !  How 
long  shall  thy  vain  thoughts  lodge  in  thee  ?  " 

The  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  heart  is  symbolized  by  water 
cleansing  things  defiled.  Hence  its  use  in  baptism.  "  Arise  and 
wash  away  thy  sins ! "  "  The  washing  of  regeneration."  These  ex- 
pressions refer  to  the  purifying  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the 
heart  renewed.  That  Spirit  expels  defilements.  They  cannot  remain 
fixed  where  there  has  been  the  "  washing  of  regeneration  and  the 
renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  Vain  thoughts,  which  proceed  from 
an  evil  heart  of  sin  and  unbelief,  cannot  "  lodge "  in  such  a  heart. 
If  the  Jews  would  have  washed  their  hearts  from  wickedness,  vain 
thoughts  would  no  longer  have  lodged  in  them. 

An  unrenewed  heart  is  the  home,  the  lodging-place,  of  vain 
thoughts.  In  a  fully-sanctified  soul,  they  can  only  intrude  them- 
selves, as  uninvited  and  unwelcome  guests.     Such  a  soul,  if  it  cannot 


52  VAIN   THOUGHTS. 

keep  them  from  entering,  will  at  least  not  permit  them  to  lodge 
within  it.  Vain  thoughts  may  be  said  to  lodge  in  the  heart  in  which 
they  are  often,  habitually,  and  unresistingly,  indulged. 

The  duty  of  controlling  the  thoughts  is  a  very  solemn  one.  It  is 
too  little  felt  by  most  Christians.  "  Out  of  the  heart  are  the  issues 
of  life."  "  As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he."  His  real 
character  determines  his  habitual  thoughts.  His  habitual  thoughts 
indicate  his  real  character.  And  yet,  what  Christian  among  us  is 
not  more  careful  of  his  conduct  than  of  his  thoughts  ?  Who  does 
not  do,  in  the  thinking,  that  which  he  would  not  dare  do  in  the  deed  ? 
For,  although  it  be  a  general  law,  that  "  as  a  man  thinketh  in  his 
heart,"  so  ''  is  he  "  in  his  life — though  the  act  of  sin  is  always  pre- 
ceded by  the  thought  of  sin — yet  it  is  true,  also,  that  many  thoughts 
and  desires  of  sin  may  not  be  matured  into  corresponding  deeds. 
The  blossom  of  thought  may  not  set  into  the  germ  of  purpose,  and 
ripen  into  the  fruit  of  deed.  Hence,  Christians  are  tempted  to  lose 
sight  of  the  sin  and  danger  of  yain  and  wicked  thoughts.  They 
forget  that  such  thoughts  themselves,  if  indulged,  are  sins.  They 
forget  that  the  chief,  original,  real,  spiritual  sinfulness  of  a  deed  is 
found  in  the  indulged  thought  of  passion  or  desire  from  which  it 
sprang.  There  would  be  no  fruit,  if  there  were  not  first  a  blossom. 
The  evil  life  is  in  the  blossom.  The  ripe  apple  of  Sodom,  the  deed 
of  licentiousness,  is  but  the  full  growth  of  the  germ  of  lustful 
thought.  The  rank,  rough  thistle,  the  open  act  of  rebellion  and, 
defiance,  was  first  a  soft  and  downy  seed — a  mere  murmuring  and 
discontent.  Vain  thoughts  indulged  are  themselves  sins.  Observe 
how  closely  Christ  connects  them  with,  and  enumerates  them  among, 
crimes,  and  refers  them  all  alike  to  the  heart.  "  For  out  of  the 
heart  proceed  evil  thoughts,  murder,  adulteries,  fornications,  thefts, 
false  witness,  blasphemies."  "Evil  thoughts"  take  the  lead  and 
command  of  this  frightful  procession  of  crimes  that  proceed  out  of 
the  heart,  as  robbers  and  murderers  from  their  den. 

I,  Vain  thoughts  !  Oh,  how  innumerable  they  aye  !  Their  name 
is  legion !  One  day's  history  of  the  thoughts,  desires,  imaginations, 
and  conceptions,  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth — what  a  black 
book  it  would  make  !  One  day's  history  of  the  inner  life  of  thepro- 
fesscd,  nay,  of  the  real.  Christians  of  the  world — what  a  melancholy, 
shameful,  confounding,  htimiliating  book  that  would  be  !  Because, 
for  the  Christian,  not  those  thoughts  only  are  vain  which  are  directly 


VAIN  THOUGHTS.  5S 

sinful,  but  all  unbelieving,  discontented,  idle,  aimless  thoughts,  are 
vain.  Whatever  thoughts  are  opposed  to  the  truth  of  God,  and  the 
providence  and  will  of  God,  it  is  vain  and  sinful  for  the  Christian  to 
indulge.  And  yet,  how  many  such  thoughts  is  he  liable  to  admit, 
and  even  to  allow  a  lodging-place  in  his  heart,  if  he  be  not  exceed- 
ingly watchful  and  self-restrained. 

II.  The  liability  to  become  the  victim  of  unregulated  thoughts  is 
fearfully  great.  In  the  minds  of  vast  multitudes,  they  are  as  Plato 
described  them — like  pigeons  in  a  pigeon-house,  flying  in  and  out 
and  about,  without  aim  or  order.  There  are  so  many  openings  through 
which  they  fly  in — so  many  corners  in  which  they  can  make  their 
nests  and  hatch  their  broods  !  Living,  as  we  do,  in  a  most  wicked 
world,  and  moving  amidst  scenes  of  sin,  they  come  in  through  the 
eye  to  the  mind,  and  become  familiar  conceptions.  Having  evil 
hearts,  out  of  them  proceed  evil  thoughts.  Being  often  given  up  to 
idleness  and  reverie,  these  thoughts  swarm  and  intercommunicate 
their  various  evil  influences.  Memory  brings  in  her  motley  train  of 
fantastic,  disconnected  conceptions;  and  imagination  and  desire 
shape  them  into  forms,  which  fire  the  passions  and  blunt  the  moral 
sensibility,  and  benumb  the  will  for  good.  Thus  is  the  temple  of 
God  defiled  by  the  indwelling  of  vain  and  unholy  thoughts.  To  keep 
them  from  coming  into  the  heart,  is  beyond  man's  power.  To  keep 
them  from  lodging  there,  is  his  duty.  It  is  a  duty  which  can  be 
discharged  only  when  the  heart  has  been  washed  from  wickedness 
by  the  Holy  Spirit. 

III.  Now,  as  the  child  of  God  has  a  lower  or  earthly  as  well  as 
a  higher  or  spiritual  life,  he  is  open  to  the  temptation  of  vain 
thoughts.  But  such  thoughts  must  not,  and  need  not,  be  allowed  to 
lodge  within  his  heart.  There  are  two  laws  of  our  nature  by  which 
thoughts  become  fixed  as  lodgers  in  the  soul ;  the  law  of  habit  and  the 
law  of  association.  Trains  of  thought,  often  repeated,  return  again 
by  the  force  of  these  laws,  independent  of  our  will,  and  against  our 
effort  and  determination.  Hence,  sentiments  and  opinions  become 
fixed  in  very  many  minds  by  the  mere  fact  of  being  repeatedly  put 
into  them,  independent  of  any  ground  of  reason  on  which  they 
might  have  been  intelligently  accepted.  Hence,  the  incalculable 
power  of  education  and  of  family  influence.  Children  who  have 
certain  sentiments,  opinions,  and  maxims,  put  into  them  day  by 
day,  and  year  by  year,  regard  them  as  undoubted  and  self-evident 


54  VAIN  THOUGHTS. 

truths.  But  whether  accepted  or  rejected,  approved  or  disapproved, 
welcomed  as  visiters  that  bless  and  purify,  or  hated  as  those  that 
corrupt  and  defile  the  heart,  it  still  remains  true  that  thoughts  which 
have  been  often  entertained  cannot  without  great  effort  and  disci- 
pline be  excluded,  but  will  return  and  return,  again  and  again,  and 
strive  to  get  a  lodgment  in  the  soul.  Each  time  the  thought  comes, 
it  will  come  as  the  bird  to  the  tree  in  which  it  builds  its  nest,  with 
one  more  of  those  numerous  slight  and  downy  fragments  of  which 
the  cunning  structure  of  its  permanent  abode  is  composed.  If  the 
Christian  be  not  vigilant  over  his  thoughts,  he  will  find  that  not 
holy  doves,  but  black  ravens,  have  made  their  nests  and  lodged  within 
and  defiled  his  heart. 

IV.  Take,  for  instance,  selfish  thonf/lits,  purposes,  and  desires.  A 
Christian  man  is  in  business  in  the  midst  of  a  sinful  and  selfish 
world.  Hundreds  around  him  view  all  business,  and  enter  into  all 
transactions,  for  the  single  selfish  purpose  of  getting  all  they  caii  for 
themselves.  Maxims  and  speeches  to  the  effect  that  this  is  the 
true  work  of  life  are  flying  about  him  every  day,  as  thick  as 
hungry  birds  in  a  field  of  grain.  These  thoughts  meet  his  ear, 
and  come  into  his  mind.  •  Moreover,  he  is  in  business  himself 
for  the  purpose  of  accumulation.  He  lays  his  plans  and  con- 
ducts his  operations  with  a  view  to  gains.  This  is  his  lawful 
aim;  nay,  as  this  is  his  calling,  it  has  become  his  urgent  duty. 
Now,  how  can  he  avoid  having  vain  and  selfish  thoughts  take 
possession  of  his  soul?  His  selfishness,  stimulated  and  irritated  by 
constant  counter-selfishness,  and  seemingly  exalted  into  a  duty;  his 
ear  hearing,  and  his  mind  taking  in,  these  selfish  thoughts  and 
maxims  every  day  and  hour,  how  can  it  be  but  that  such  thoughts 
shall  master  and  absorb  him?  Oh,  it  cannot  hut  be,  unless  his 
heart  has  been  washed  from  wickedness  by  the  Holy  Spirit — unless 
he  is  careful  not  to  let  these  thoughts,  which  fly  into  his  mind,  alight 
there,  and  build  their  nests.  If  a  love  of  Christ  has  supplanted  a 
love  of  self  and  sin ;  if  there  lodge  in  his  heart  generous  self-sacri- 
ficing thoughts,  placed  there  by  the  Holy  Spirit  when  the  soul  com- 
muned with  God  in  the  early  morning  prayer,  in  the  closet  and  in 
the  family ;  if  the  habitual  thought  of  God's  "unspeakable  gift  has 
made  him  aim  at  gains  only  with  a  view  to  honor  God  and  bless  others 
with  his  substance,  then  such  thoughts  cannot  stay  in  the  heart.  The 
heart  will  be  preoccupied.  They  may  not  even,  except  by  stealth,  enter. 


VAIN   THOUGHTS.  55 

-  They  will,  only  flutter  on  the  outside  of  the  heart,  the  interior  of  which 
they  are  not  permitted  to  occupy.  The  windows  will  be  closed  to 
them.  The  doves  of  holy  thought  and  principle  and  desire,  which 
flew  to  their  windows  in  the  morning,  will  remain  brooding  and  softly 
murmuring  within,  while  these  birds  of  prey  scream  and  wheel  im- 
potently  without. 

V.  It  is  so,  also,  in  the  case  of  discontented  thouglits.  All  around 
us  are  the  prosperous  and  successful.  That  which  we  have  aimed 
at,  and  failed  to  reach,  we  perceive  that  many  have  attained.  At  a 
late  period  in  life,  we  may,  by  reverses,  be  compelled  to  begin  the 
work  of  life  anew.  At  a  point  where  we  had  hoped  for  ease  and 
quiet,  we  may  be  in  the  midst  of  perplexities  and  cares.  Even  ouj- 
moderate  anticipations  may  have  been  disappointed.  Our  business, 
our  homes,  our  families,  our  social  relations — all,  or  much  that  we  rely 
upon  for  satisfaction — refuse  to  become  what  we  desite.  Now,  there 
are  constant  temptations,  from  these  sources,  to  fall  into  habits  of  dis- 
contented thought.  If  this  earthly  life  were  our  all,  and  if  our 
hearts  were  not  transformed  into  a  higher  love,  it  would  be  impossi- 
ble for  us  to  avoid  constant  discontent.  With  selfishness  ever  clam- 
oring for  more,  and  life,  even  at  its  best,  never  furnishing  its  full 
gratification,  it  were  inevitable  that  we  should  be  dissatisfied.  Even 
with  the  love  of  Christ  and  the  hope  of  heaven  in  the  heart,  there  is 
a  tendency  to  allow  depressing  and  discontented  reflections  to  recur 
and  become  habitual.  Nay,  under  the  guise  of  religion,  they  may  be 
allowed  an  entrance.  One  may  think  of  life's  disappointments  in  a 
strain  like  this  :  "  This  is  a  wretched  world.  God  means,  by  con- 
stantly baffling  my  hopes,  to  convince  me  of  this  truth.  It  is  well 
that  I  should  be  discontented  with  life.  It  is  well  that  I  should  feel, 
and  express,  and  cherish,  the  thoughts  connected  with  the  disap- 
pointments God  has  sent  me."  Now,  this  is  true,  but  it  is  only  half 
the  truth.  God  has,  indeed,  sent  you  disappointments,  that  you 
should  be  discontented  with  earth,  but  not  that  you  should  allow 
thoughts  of  earth's  unsatisfactoriness  to  rest  and  throw  a  gloom  within 
your  heart,  but  only  to  direct  you  to  cherish  those  sweeter  and  higher 
thoughts  of  Heaven,  and  of  spiritual  and  holy  satisfaction,  which  can 
never  fail  you.  This  is  a  higher  strain  of  thought,  and  is  altogether 
cheerful  and  pleasant :  "  Blessed  be  God  for  my  disappointments ! 
Praised  be  His  name  that  my  desires  in  life  have  not  been  gratified. 
Thus  am  I  led  to  think  upon  my  portion — to  dwell  on  God's  kind 


56  VAIN   THOUGHTS. 

purposes — to  revolve  His  promises — to  be  led  away  from  being  ab- 
sorbed in  tlie  thoughts  of  vanity  or  of  earthly  good — and  to  medi- 
tate more  upon  the  greater  blessings  of  the  disappointments  which 
are  discipline,  than  of  the  successes  which  would  be  temptation." 
Such  are  the  holy  and  contented  meditations  with  which,  preoccu- 
pying the  heart,  we  may  keep  out  vain  and  repining  thoughts.  In 
Switzerland,  shepherds  sometimes  drive  their  flocks  over  the  lower 
glaciers  in  the  glens,  in  order  that  they  may  reach  the  green  pastur- 
age which  smiles  above.  So  does  the  Good  Shepherd  drive  our 
reluctant  feet  over  icy  disappointments,  to  seek  the  green  -pastures 
which  lie  high  up  on  the  mountain  of  the  Lord,  where  the  airs  are 
purer,  and  where  the  sunlight  glorifies  all  that  lies  below. 

VI.  Again,  there  are  vain  thoughts  in  reference  to  the  past,  which 
build  for  themselves,  like  wild  ravening  eagles,  high  eyries  in  the 
memory,  thoughts  which  it  is  difficult  to  dislodge  and  destroy.  Who 
has  not  made  awful  mistakes  in  the  past  ?  Who  has  not  perpetrated 
sins  whose  memory  is  now  an  open  wound,  or  a  red  scowling  scar 
upon  the  soul  ?  Who  cannot  go  back,  in  thought,  to  crises  in  his 
life,  which  he  would  give  all  that  he  ever  had  of  wealth  or  joy,  if 
he  could  renew,  in  order  -that,  he  might  make  a  diiFerent  decision, 
and  pursue  a  different  course  ?  Who  has  not  had  fearful  sorrows, 
which  come  back  and  scream  around  his  soul  in  hours  of  weakness 
and  depression,  as  vultures  wheel  around  the  exhausted  traveller  in 
the  desert  ?  Now,  the  tendency  to  cherish  and  revolve  and  renew 
these  thoughts  of  past  sin  and  sorrow,  is  very  great  in  many  minds. 
It  is  greatest  in  minds  that  are  most  ingenuous  and  conscientious. 
And  it  is  well  to  call  to  mind  the  sins  of  our  youth,  and  to  confer 
with  the  sorrows  of  the  past ;  to  walk,  with  bowed  head  and  humble 
heart,  up  the  avenues  of  departed  time,  and  pause  at  the  places 
where  our  hopes  lie  buried,  and  read  the  monitory  epitaphs  that 
surmount  them ;  this  is  well,  if  we  do  it  to  deepen  our  humiliation, 
and  quicken  our  obedience  and  diligence  in  duty.  But  these 
thoughts  are  vain,  and  worse  than  vain,  if  they  m?ike  us  feel  that 
because  of  this  past  we  cannot  have  a  bright,  happy-hearted,  earnest, 
and  useful  life  before  us.  If  they  persuade  us  that  the  sorrows  and 
sins  of  the  beginning  have  inevitably  necessitated  gloom,  inefficiency, 
and  blight,  at  the  end  of  our  probation,  they  are  vain  and  lying 
thoughts.  It  is  not  so !  Samson's  riddle  shall  here  be  true.  In  the 
carcass  of  the  past,  there  shall  be  hived  honey  for  the  future.     ''Out 


VAIN   THOUGHTS.  67 

■  of  the  eater  shall  come  forth  meat,  and  out  of  the  strong  shall  come 
forth  sweetness."  From  such  a  past,  and  from  right,  wise  thoughts 
upon  it,  shall  come  forth  a  strong,  alert,  and  joyful  Christian  life. 
Peter's  sin  and  shame  shall  be  the  motive,  and  the  prelude,  to  Peter's 
burning  zeal  and  glorious  martyrdom  for  Christ.  Paul's  persecuting 
hate,  repented  and  remembered,  shall  deepen  Paul's  yearning  love. 
These  remembered  sins  and  sorrows  of  the  past  shall  not  be  as  stones 
rolled  upon  the  Christian,  to  push  him  down  the  mountain  of  holiness, 
but  rather  as  stepping  stones  laid  before  him,  upon  which  he  shall 
ascend  higher.  Oh,  it  is  a  temptation  of  the  Devil,  when  we  are 
led  to  coldness,  depression,  and  inactivity,  in  the  present,  because  of 
the  mistakes  and  sorrows  of  the  past.  Such  a  tried  and  tempted  past 
has  made  us  well  to  know  sin  and  sorrow ;  and  a  deep  knowledge  of 
these  may  and  should  lead  us  to  aim  and  aspire  after  higher  peace 
and  holiness.  Over  our  remembered  follies  and  self-made  woes,  we 
will  pass  to  glorious  victory  and  success,  even  as  in  war,  soldiers, 
over  dead  bodies,  mount  the  parapet,  and  scale  the  wall,  and  snatch 
the  victory.  Then  let  us  not  allow  the  vain  and  disheartening 
thoughts  which  memory  brings  from  the  past,  to  lodge  in  the  heart, 
and  thus  keep  out  of  it  thoughts  of  God's  sure  promises — cheerful 
thoughts,  which  rest  on  duty,  and  give  birth  to  praise.  If  these 
wicked  Philistines  of  the  soul  entrench  themselves  in  the  stronghold 
of  the  Holy  Land,  which  is  the  heritage  of  Emmanuel,  send  up  these 
thoughts  and  promises  into  the  midst  of  them  :  "  I  can  do  all  things 
through  Christ  that  strengtheneth  me ; "  "  Christ's  strength  is  suf- 
ficient for  me."  Send  these  champions  for  Grod  among  them,  and 
they  shall  be  as  Jonathan  and  his  armor-bearer  at  Michmish,  and 
the  one  shall  chase  a  thousand ;  and  the  vain  thoughts  shall  be  dis- 
lodged, and  holy  thoughts — peaceful,  happy,  hopeful,  thoughts — shall 
take  their  place,  and  hang  out  their  glad  banners  from  the  conquered 
towers. 

VII.  Unbelieving,  sheptical  thovghts — such  as  charge  God  with 
injustice,  or  hang  around  His  glorious  perfections  as  an  obscuring 
cloud — are  prone  to  lodge  within  our  hearts.  There  are  two  modes 
of  thinking  upon  God.  Wo  may  think  of  Him  as  He  is  represented 
in  Scripture;  as  He  is  in  Himself;  as  He  is  seen  in  the  face  of 
Jesus  Christ ;  as  our  Sijiritual  intuitions  and  our  enlightened  reason 
tell  us  that  He  is,  and  everlastingly  must  have  been.  Then  He  is 
the  all  perfect,  all  loving,  all  holy  God,  and  our  hearts  are  filled  with 


58  VAIN  THOUGHTS. 

love  and  praise.  Then  "  our  meditations  of  Him  shall  be  sweet." 
Or  we  may  look  into  this  evil  world,  a  world  which  He  created,  and 
dwell  in  thought  upon  its  awful  sins  and  uncounted  sufferings;  we 
may  look  in  upon  ourselves,  and  study  our  weakness,  inability,  wretch- 
edness, and  fearful  propeusion  to  evil ;  we  may  dwell  upon  God,  as 
thus  seen  in  an  evil  world,  until  our  minds  revolve  and  cherish 
unbelieving,  doubting,  dishonoring  thoughts  of  God.  We  may  peer 
into  the  mysteries  and  irreconcilabilities  of  His  dispensations,  in 
providence  and  grace,  until  we  cannot  either  see,  or  fully  believe, 
that  He  is  only  and  wholly  just  and  good  aad  loving.  Now,  all  such 
thoughts  are  vain.  They  are  unworthy  the  privileged  Christian, 
who  is  permitted  to  see  God  in  Christ,  as  He  is  in  His  essential 
nature,  and  therefore  as  He  miist  he  in  all  His  dispensations.  We 
hear  in  modern  phraseology  of  "  the  night-side  of  nature."  There 
are  Christians  who,  in  their  speculations  and  sorrows,  have  come  to 
feel  as  if  there  were  a  night-side  to  God.  "  God  is  light,  and  in 
Him  is  no  darkness  at  all  ! "  To  look  at  God,  and  judge  of 
Him  by  what  we  see  in  a  world  where  a  sinful  free  will  has  rebelled 
and  marred  His  works,  is  all  one  as  if  we  turned  our  back  upon  the 
sun,  and  stood  in  the  shadow  of  a  rock,  and  gazed  down  a  deep  abyss, 
and  then  judged  of  the  glorious  orb  of  day  by  the  few  straggling 
rays  of  light  which  only  make  the  darkness  visible  below !  Our 
thoughts  of  what  God  is  should  be  only  such  as  we  find  in  His  holy 
Word,  and  have  derived  from  our  own  sweet  experience  in  Christ 
Jesus,  that  the  Lord  is  gracious.  Thus  shall  all  vain  and  dishonoring 
and  unbelieving  thoughts  of  God  be  dislodged  from  our  minds.  We 
will  not  then  see  God  as  the  author  or  the  careless  permitter  of  the 
awful  sins  and  unimaginable  woes  of  earth.  We  shall  only  see  Him 
in  the  midst  of  earth's  imperfections,  as  the  uncompromising  and 
triumphant  foe  of  evil— the.  beneficent  Father,  who  educes  all  pos- 
sible good  from  all  inevitable  evil.  We  shall  see  that  all  moral 
darkness  has  come  of  getting  away  from  His  light,  and  not  from 
Him  who  is  only  light.  Oh,  the  sweet  thoughts  pf  such  a  God  ! 
How  inexpressibly  blessed  to  look  up  from  amidst  the  mysteries 
which  enwrap  us  here,  to  God  Himself,  "  whose  nature  and  whose 
name  is  love,"  and  to  be  sure  that  no  evil  i&  from  Him,  that  He 
overrules  it  all  for  the.  good  of  His  children,  and  that  its  coming 
has  called  out  the  fullness  of  His  adorable  perfections !  On  such 
thoughts  we  rise  above  the  clouds  of  mysteries  and  doubt,  and  see 


VAIN  THOUGHTS.  69 

them  darkly  rolling  their  glooms  and  flashing  their  fearful  lightnings 
on  the  children  of  sin  and  unbelief  who  abide  below ! 

VIII.  In  the  minds  of  men  yet  unreconciled  to  God,  vain  and 
delusive  thoughts  lodge,  which  are  intended  to  quiet  their  fear,  and 
keep  them  at  peace  in  sin.  They  say  to  themselves,  that  they  are 
what  God  has  made  them,  and  are  therefore  not  responsible  for  being 
evil.  They  dwell  upon  the  large  mercy  of  God,  and  apply  to  the 
impenitent  the  descriptions  of  the  boundless  compassion  which  is 
ready  to  save  the  penitent.  They  strive  to  persuade  themselves,  that 
however  the  Scriptures  may  sound,  it  cannot  be  that  a  God  wholly 
benevolent  will  punish  forever  and  ever  His  weak  creature,  who 
lives  only  according  to  the  nature  with  which  he  came  into  the  world. 
Or  they  throw  themselves  on  the  excuse,  that  as  they  are  declared 
to  be  unable  of  themselves  to  turn  to  God,  they  must  wait  until  the 
ability  is  given  to  them  from  above.  Now,  to  these  thoughts  they 
give  such  constant  welcome,  they  are  so  careful  not  to  entertain  or 
allow  an  admission  to  their  obvious  answers,  that  they  have  effected 
a  strong  lodgment  in  their  hearts.  Satan  has  prepared  and  decked 
the  chamber  wherein  they  rest.  He  has  administered  the  opiate 
through  which  they  sleep.  He  has  forged  the  locks  and  bars  by 
which  they  are  defended  from  the  just  and  righteous  truths  which 
would,  as  the  ministers  of  holy  authority,  dislodge  these  rebel  and 
wicked  thoughts.  Qh,  if  they  would  but  let  their  reason  speak,  they 
would  see  how  utterly  vain  such  thoughts  are !  You  say  you  are 
what  God  has  made  you,  and  therefore  not  responsible  for  being 
evil.  No — you  are  not  what  God  made  you !  You  are  far  worse  than 
you  were  by  your  birth-nature.  Even  if  we  should  admit  that  God 
is  responsible  for  the  evil  nature  which  you  have  inherited — which 
of  course  we  do  not — still  you  have  not  acted  according  to  tJiat  nature. 
You  have  made  it  worse.  It,  as  it  came  to  you,  had  a  conscience, 
whose  place  was  supremacy.  You  have  not  assigned  to  it  that  place. 
You  have  made  it  give  way,  times  without  number,  to  passion  and 
inclination,  when  you  might  have  yielded  to  its  suggestions.  Again — 
you  dwell  on  the  large  mercy  of  God,  as  if,  in  its  infinite  reach,  you 
and  all  sinners  must  be  included.  It  is  indeed  large,  beyond  your 
possible  comprehension.  God  is  wholly,  and,  if  I  may  so  express 
myself,  inflezihli/  merciful.  He  is  not  so  weakly  merciful  as  through 
mere  pity  to  forgive  the  polluted,  and  thus  defeat  the  very  ends  of 
mercy.     Justice  is  wrapped  up  in  that  mercy.     Even  your  own 


60  VAIN   THOUGHTS. 

imperfect  human  mercy  is  uot  separated  from  justice;  or,  if  it  is,  it 
is  a  weak  and  contemptible  quality,  wliich  results  in  direst  cruelty 
to  its  unhappy  subjects.  God,  you  say,  will  not  punish  His  weak 
and  erring  creatures,  in  another  world,  for  sins  to  which  an  infirm 
and  damaged  nature  prompts  them.  But  He  does  punish  them  here 
for  such  sins.  Then  why  not  hereafter  ?  The  drunkard,  the  adul- 
terer, the  murderer,  are  punished  here  by  God's  providential  govern- 
ment, for  sins  to  which  a  weak  and  erring  nature  prompts  them.  Is 
God  one  thing  here  on  earth,  and  another  there  in  heaven  ?  It  were 
all  one  to  say  that  the  sun  has  light  and  heat  here,  in  his  beams  on 
earth,  but  none  of  it  there,  in  its  source  in  heaven  ;  and  to  say  that 
God's  holiness  shines  on  earth,  but  that  He  has  none  of  it  in  heaven. 
Look  you  to  it — that  as  God  punishes  sin  now.  He  will  punish  it 
more  fearfully  hereafter;  and  that  as  His  holiness  shines  now 
brightly  from  a  distance,  it  will  be  a  consuming  fire  when  it  draws 
near. 

You  say,  also,  that  you  are  unable  to  turn  to  God.  This,  indeed, 
is  true.  But  that  inability,  which  you  make  the  excuse  for  remain- 
ing in  sin,  God  uses  as  a  reason  for  throwing  yourself  upon  One  who 
is  mighty.  Because  without  ability,  because  helpless,  throw  yourself 
upon  Him  who  is  mighty  to  save.  "  Work  out  your  own  salvation 
with  fear  and  trembling,  for  it  is  God  that  worketh  in  you  to  will 
and  to  do." 

How  vain  these  thoughts  are,  is  clear,  from  your  own  inner- 
most consciousness.  Notwithstanding  all  these  cavils,  you  still  have 
fears  and  misgivings — "certain  fearful  lookings  for  of  judgment." 
These  are  the  voice  of  your  responsible  immortal  nature.  They 
cannot  be  reasoned  out  of  existence.  They  are  inseparable  from  an 
immortal  and  spiritual  nature.  They  will  remain  forever.  They  may 
sleep,  but  they  will  never  perish,  and  at  length  wake  to  sleep  no 
more.  They  did  not  ask  leave  of  argument  to  come  into  your  soul. 
They  will  not  go  out  of  your  soul  at  the  bidding  of  argument.  Prove, 
conclude,  affirm,  what  you  will,  your  spiritual  nature  will  testify  that 
it  is  an  evil,  a  wrong,  a  thing  of  guilt,  a  real  death  and  damnation, 
here  and  hereafter,  now  and  always,  inevitably  and  necessarily,  to  be 
evil  and  to  be  away  from  God !  Oh  that  the-  Spirit  of  God  would 
cast  these  evil  thoughts  from  your  heart !  Why  should  vain  thoughts 
lodge  in  thee  ? 


f7/.^.  A.A^/L: 


CHAEITY. 

BY  REV.  EDWARD  N.  KIRK,  D.  D., 

PASTOB   OP   MOUNT   TEENON    CHCRCH,   BOSTON,    MASSACHUSETTS. 


So  speak  ye,  and  so  do,  as  they  that  shall  be  judged  by  the  law  of  liberty. 
For  he  shall  have  judgment  without  mercy,  that  hath  shewed  no  mercy;  and 
mercy  rejoiceth  against  judgment; — James,  ii,  12,  13. 

The  two  Apostles,  James  and  Paul,  have  been  regarded  by  many 
as  teaching  two  gospels.  But  there  is  no  contradiction  in  their 
thought;  the  appearance  of  it  may  be  found  in  their  varied  use  of 
the  word  "justified."  Paul  means  by  it,  our  standing  right  before 
God's  law;  James,  our  standing  right  before  His  Gospel.  So  far  as 
this  difi"erence  needs  explanation,  it  will  be  met  in  the  course  of  our 
meditations  on  this  passage. 

There  is  in  the  uuregenerate  heart  an  aversion,  often  unsuspected, 
to  the  method  of  grace;  justification  by  grace,  through  faith.  That 
aversion  manifests  itself  as  really  in  every  unconverted  professor  of 
religion,  as  in  the  rationalistic  unbeliever. 

James  wrote  his  epistle  mainly  for  that  class ;  persons  who  had 
accepted  and  confessed  the  system  of  grace,  with  a  secret  antipathy 
to  its  vital  elements.  And  the  passage  now  before  us  is  one  of  the 
touch-stones  which  he  applied  to  their  case.  "  Brethren,  have  not 
the  faith  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Lord  of  glory,  with  respect 
of  persons ;  for  if  there  come  into  your  assembly  a  man  with  a  gold 
ring,  in  goodly  apparel,  and  there  come  in  also  a  poor  man  in  vile 
raiment ;  and  ye  have  respect  to  him  that  weareth  the  gay  clothing, 
and  say  unto  him,  '  Sit  thou  here  in  a  good  place,'  and  say  unto  the 
poor,  '  Stand  thou  there,'  or,  '  sit  here  under  my  footstool,'  are  ye 
not  then  partial  ?  " 

Here  is  the  socialism  of  Christianity,  in  its  antagonism  to  the  ex- 
clusiveness  of  pride.     It  is  no  attack  on  grades  in  social  existence; 


62  CHARITY. 

no  reduction  of  society  to  a  monotonous  level;  no  opposition  to 
reverence  for  station  and  rank,  age,  excellence,  and  office ;  but,  sim- 
ply, love  against  pride.  It  is  not  an  advocacy  of  the  pewless  cathe- 
dral, against  the  pew  in  the  church.  It  is  simply  charity  toward 
man,  rich  or  poor,  agreeable  or  disagreeable,  friend  or  foe ;  charity 
expressed  in  the  sanctuary  or  out  of  it,  charity  everywhere,  and 
always. 

The  argument  of  the  Apostle  is  this :  if  we  have  really  accepted 
"  the  law  of  liberty,"  then  we  have  become  good  and  merciful  like 
God.  But  if  we  have  not  so  accepted  the. Gospel,  and  the  grace  it 
proclaims,  as  to  have  been  made  condescending,  kind,  and  impartial, 
then  we  "shall  have  judgment  without  mercy."^ 

What,  then,  is  the  Gospel  ?  Regarded  as  a  document,  it  is  the 
proclamation  of  a  peculiar  exercise  of  the  Divine  goodness  toward 
sinners.  Considered  as  a  method  of  Divine  goodness,  it  is  a  law, 
just  as  much  as  the  Mosaic  code ;  having,  equally  with  that,  its  com- 
mands and  prohibitions,  its  rewards  and  penalties ;  nay,  a  higher 
authority,  more  glorious  rewards,  and  more  terrible  penalties.  Christ 
is  both  King  and  Redeemer;  and,  when  He  calls  us  to  Himself,  it  is 
that  we  may  take  upon  us  His  yoke. 

Yet  the  Gospel  is  entirely  contrasted,  in  many  points,  "with  both 
the  law  of  Pai-adise  and  the  law  of  Sinai.  This  contrast  is  expressed  • 
in  the  phrase,  "  law  of  liberty,"  which  designates  it  to  be  as  peculiar 
as  is  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ,  its  author;  requiring  personal 
holiness,  as  much  as  the  law  of  Moses ;  but,  unlike  that,  first  setting 
the  soul  at  liberty  from  the  bonds  of  guilt,  and  accepting  sincerity 
and  faith  instead  of  perfection. 

To  one  who  has  always  had  the  spirit  of  obedience,  and  against 
whom  the  law  has  no  charges,  duty  is  itself  freedom ;  and  the  law 
of  Paradise  re-enacted  on  Sinai  would  be  to  him  the  law  of  liberty. 
But  to  the  guilty  and  sinful,  that  law  is  only  bondage,  because  it 
requires  holiness  by  mere  authority,  and  with  no  relaxation  of  the 
penalty  incurred.  Its  spirit  is,  "the  soul  that  sinn9th,  it  shall  die." 
"  Then  I  may  as  well  despair  at  once,"  is  the  natural,  only  reply  a 
sinner  can  make  to  mere  law.  "  God  hates  me,  and  I  cannot  pro- 
pitiate Him.  I  have  a  crushing  load  of  guilt  upon  me,  which  I  can 
never  remove.  I  am  a  wicked  being,  and  can  never  renew  the  foun- 
tain of  spiritual  life  in  my  own  spirit.  I  must  then  sink  under  the 
load  of  my  fetters,  in  absolute  despair."     Every  child  of  Adam 


CHARITY.  63 

would  use  such  language,  if  he  knew  himself  without  knowing  the 
Grospel.  But  the  Gospel  puts  everything  on  a  totally  different  found- 
ation. It  presents  God  in  a  new  light.  The  law  had  revealed  Him 
as  holy,  just,  and  good,  to  the  good.  But  the  Gospel  reveals  Him 
as  good  to  the  bad,  merciful  to  the  guilty,  a  Saviour  to  the  lost. 
Here,  then,  is  emancipation.  The  guilty,  depraved,  lost  spirit, 
can  return  to  its  Creator,  and  Sovereign,  and  Judge.  God  is  love. 
Under  this  law  of  liberty,  we  can  confess  past  transgressions,  ac- 
knowledge present  evil  tendencies,  mourn  over  deep  defects  of  char- 
acter ;  and  all  this,  to  a  holy  God,  a  kind  Father,  without  despair, 
without  fear.  The  Gospel  is  a  law  of  liberty  also,  because  it  reveals 
a  complete,  ample  foundation  of  reconciliation  with  God,  which  mo^t 
abundantly  satisfies  every  scruple  of  the  conscience,  every  sentiment 
of  justice  and  honor,  in  the  human  soul.  It  moreover  reveals  a 
new  Divine  power — the  Holy  Spirit,  which  Christ  compares  to  living 
water,  to  life  itself.  A  free  Spirit  is  to  work  in  us  all  righteousness. 
Hence  David  says,  "  uphold  me  with  thy  free  Spirit."  And  God 
says,  by  Jeremiah,  "  I  will  make  a  new  covenant,  I  will  put  my  law 
in  their  inward  parts,  and  write  it  in  their  hearts."  Once  it  was  put 
without,  by  authority,  on  tablets  of  stone ;  now  it  is  put  within,  by 
grace,  on  the  living  tablets  of  the  heart.  And  another  peculiarity 
of  the  Gospel  is,  that  faith  constitutes  obedience  to  it.  The  law 
was  to  be  obeyed ;  the  Gospel  is  to  be  believed.  The  whole  power 
of  the  law  enters  the  soul,  by  the  conscience  approving  it.  But  the 
Gospel  enters  by  the  heart  believing  it. 

Taith  believes  God  testifying  in  the  Gospel,  His  mercy ;  as  the 
conscience  recognises  God  commanding  in  the  law.  Faith  sees  the 
law  in  the  Gospel,  and  fully  understands  that  Christ  came  not  to 
destroy  the  law.  It  accepts  the  law  in  the  hands  of  a  mediator. 
The  believer  is  a  rebel  acknowledging  the  purity  and  righteousness 
of  the  law  he  has  broken,  but  at  the  same  time  accepting  the  grace 
that  pardons  and  that  renews.  Unbelief,  rejecting  both  authority 
and  grace,  goes  on  carelessly  to  doom;  or,  accepting  law,  and  despair- 
ing of  grace,  it  sinks  beneath  an  insupportable  load. 

Many  have  misunderstood  the  act  of  faith,  supposing  it  to  be  a 
belief  that  we  are  saved ;  while  it  is  a  belief  that  we  are  loved. 

What,  then,  is  the  legitimate  influence  of  this  faith  ?  Its  results 
must  be,  humility,  love,  and  gratitude.  The  trembling,  despairing 
Boul,  expecting  to  meet  only  a  God  of  immaculate  holiness  and  in- 


64  CHARITY. 

flexible  jastice,  meets  a  God  of  love !  He  sees  only  a  self-sacrificing 
friend,  wiiere  he  liad  looked  for  an  avenger  of  blood.  In  that  atmos- 
phere of  love,  he  learns  to  love ;  to  love  God  and  man ;  sinful,  lost 
man.  Here  is  a  death-blow  at  the  root  of  his  selfishness  and  isolating 
pride.  Here  he  learns  sympathy.  Being  himself  an  object  of  Divine 
compassion,  of  that  mercy  which  rejoiceth  against  judgment,  he 
learns  to  show  mercy  to  them  whom  his  judgment  must  condemn. 
Seeing  how  tenderly  God  regards  man,  without  respect  to  his  attain- 
ments or  position,  he  learns  to  respect  humanity  in.  every  instance. 
Casting  himself  solely  on  the  mercy  of  God,  he  knows  the  value  of 
mercy  toward  his  fellow  man. 

This  was  beautifully  illustrated  by  the  Saviour  in  one  of  His 
parables.  The  lord  of  a  certain  servant  sent  for  him  one  day,  to  in- 
quire how  much  the  steward  was  indebted  to  his  lord.  It  was  ten 
thousand  talents;  more  than  fifteen  million  dollars.  "  But  forasmuch 
as  he  had  nothing  to  pay,  his  lord  commanded  him  to  be  sold;  and 
his  wife  and  children,  and  all  that  he  had,  (for  that  was  the  custom 
of  the  times,)  and  payment  to  be  made.  The  servant  therefore  fell 
down  and  worshipped  him,  saying,  '  Lord,  have  patience  with  me, 
and  I  will  pay  thee  all.'.  Then  the  lord  of  that  servant  was  moved 
with  compassion,  and  loosed  him,  and  forgave  him  the  debt.  But 
the  same  servant  went  out  and  found  one  of  his  fellow  servants  which  ' 
owed  him  an  hundred  pence,  or  about  fourteen  dollai's;  and  he  laid 
hands  on  him,  and  took  him  by  the  throat,  saying,  '  Pay  me  that 
thou  owest.'  And  his  fellow  servant  fell  down  at  his  feet,  and 
besought  him,  saying,  '  Have  patience  with  me,  and  I  will  pay  thee 
all.'  And  he  would  not,  but  went  and  cast  him  into  prison,  till  he 
should  pay  the  debt."  What  a  picture  of  man,  refusing  forgive- 
ness, mercy,  or  love,  to  man,  when  he  himself  expects  forgiveness, 
mercy,  and  love,  from  God !, 

James  says,  "  So  speak  ye,  and  so  do,  as  they  that  shall  be  judged 
by  the  law  of  liberty."  In  all  your  words  and  actions,  it  should  be 
manifest  that  you  have  believed  in  Christ,  that  you  have  believed 
that  God  is  love,  have  realized  yourself  to  be  the  object  of  an  infinite 
compassion.  Never  manifest  a  want  of  respect  for  human  beings ; 
of  compassion,  sympathy,  or  mercy.  So  speak,  and  so  do,  as  those 
who  expect  to  stand  at  God's  dread  tribunal;  there  to  be  dealt  with, 
not  after  the  rigors  of  justice,  but  by  the  gentleness  of  mercy. 

This  is  the  Apostle's  first  appeal ;  it  is  to  our  consistency,  to  our 


CHARITY.  65 

best  judgment.  It  is  manifestly  reasonable,  in  tlie  highest  degree, 
that  they  who  meet  so  great  mercy,  should  be  merciful. 

And  to  this  he  adds  the  consideration,  that  our  pretensions  to 
faith  will  undergo  a  solemn  scrutiny.  Even  they  who  profess  to  be 
believers  "  shall  be  judged."  "  We  must  all  appear  before  the  judg- 
ment seat  of  Christ,  that  every  one  may  receive  the  things  done  in 
his  body,  according  to  that  he  hath  done,  whether  it  be  good  or  bad." 
"  But  does  not  faith  save  us  from  the  judgment  ?  "  No.  While  the 
Scriptui-es  say  we  are  not  to  be  saved  by  our  works,  yet  they  affirm 
that  we  are  to  be  judged  by  them.  Let  us  get  this  cleai-ly  before 
our  minds,  by  observing  that  the  very  question  in  the  judgment  will 
be,  Had  you  faith  ? 

Faith  is  to  be  tested  in  the  general  judgment;  the  Saviour  has 
taught  us  in  His  solemn  description  of  the  scene,  in  the  twenty-fifth 
chapter  of  Matthew.  The  whole  process  He  makes  to  consist  in — the 
discriminating  act  of  His  omniscience,  by  which  every  human  being 
will  be  placed  in  one  of  two  companies — the  solemn  sentence  passed 
on  each  company — the  execution  of  that  sentence.  The  sentences 
pronounced  describe  their  own  reasons,  and  they  are  summed  up 
in  this :  the  reception  or  rejection  of  Christ.  We  indeed  never 
saw  Him,  personally,  a  hungered  or  in  prison,  and  therefore  we  have 
never  been  tested  by  that.  Yet  there  are  a  thousand  other  ways  in 
which  the  simple  but  momentous  question.  Have  you  faidi  in  Christ  ? 
has  been  answered  by  our  words  and  acts. 

Observe  how  James  states  it :  "  Was  not  Abraham  justified  by 
works,  when  he  had  offered  Isaac  his  son  upon  the  altar  ?  "  Now, 
observe  what  erpknation  he  gives  of  this.  He  does  not  say  that 
Abraham,  by  obedience  to  law,  was  saved.  No;  he  declares,  first,  that 
Abraham  received  justification,  or  righteousness,  which  is  salvation, 
by  faith;  and  then  that  his  works  justified,  or  verified,  his  faith. 
Hear  his  explanation :  "  Seest  thou  how  faith  wrought  with  his 
works,  and  by  works  was  faith  made  (or  manifested  to  be)  perfect  ? 
And  the  Scripture  was  fulfilled,  which  saith,  Abraham  believed  Grod, 
and  it  was  counted  to  him  for  righteousness.  Ye  see,  then,  how  that 
by  works  a  man  is  justified,  and  not  by  faith  only."  And  the  need 
of  this  form  of  justification  is  obvious;  for,  as  faith  is  an  act  of  the 
spirit,  man  cannot  see  it  until  it  embodies  itself  in  speech  and  deed. 

Now,  you  will  notice  that  there  are  many  good  deeds  which  in  the 
final  judgment  will  be  no  better  than  bad  deeds.  Some  are  repre- 
5 


6Q  CHAHITY. 

sonted  as  saying,  in  tliat  day:  "Lord,  have  we  not  prophesied  in  thy 
name,  and  in  thy  name  cast  out  devils,  and  in  thy  name  done  many 
•wonderful  works  ?  "  Now,  while  the  Lord  does  not  deny  the  perform- 
ance of  all  these  excellent  deeds,  yet  He  declai-es :  "  Then  will  I  pro- 
fess unto  them,  I  never  knew  you;  depart  from  me."  And  Paul  shows 
the  possibility  of  speaking  with  the  eloquence  of  angels,  giving  away 
all  our  possessions  to  build  hospitals  and  feed  the  poor — yea,  our  bodies 
to  the  martyr's  stake — and  yet,  of  not  being  acknowledged  of  Christ. 
Where,  then,  is  the  difference  in  the  good  works  that  will  justify, 
and  those  that  will  not  ?  It  lies  here :  those  that  originated  in  a 
living  faith  are  deeds  springing  from  a  true,  or  loving,  grateful,  and 
obedient  heart.  They  therefore  will  be  accepted ;  and  no  others. 
And  it  is  manifest  that  a  merely  external  obedience  to  God's  law  is 
disobedience,  and  that  no  sinner  begins  to  obey  spiritually  until  he 
has  believed  the  Gospel.  A  self-righteous  obedience  must  be  an 
insult  to  God,  as  it  puts  self  above  God,  dishonors  the  law,  and 
despises  the  graee  of  God.  It  presents  an  outward,  heartless  act,  as 
both  an  obedience  to  the  precept,  and  an  atonement  to  the  penalty  of 
the  law.  It  does  not  obey  God,  for  He  requires  repentance  and  faith. 
Its  motive  is  not  gratitude  for  sins  forgiven,  but  fear  of  punishment, 
or  some  other  reference  to  self.  It  fosters,  not  humility,  but  pride. 
•  It  produces,  not  piety,  but  formality;  not  charity,  but  selfishness. 
"  Abraham  believed  God,  and  it  was  counted  to  him  for  righteous- 
ness." Why  ?  Because  he  cordially  obeyed  God's  new  command. 
He  came  to  God  as  a  sinner,  to  be  forgiven ;  to  receive  all  good,  then 
and  forever,  from  the  mere  grace  of  God.  Wonderful  as  it  was,  he 
believed  just  what  God  said.  He  prostrated  eveiy  doubt,  and  fear, 
and  objection  of  reason,  before  the  Divine  testimony  and  promise. 
He  went  fearlessly  into  the  wilderness,  unhesitatingly  to  the  mount 
of  sacrifice ;  never  pausing  to  argue,  to  see  whence  help  could  arise, 
or  how  God  could  make  His  own  word  good.  You  see  in  him  that 
faith  and  works,  are  fountaia  and  stream.  The  one  is  in  the  hearty 
and  invisible  to  man  until  it  comes  to  the  surface  in  deeds.  And 
.as  James  says :  "  Seest  thou  how  faith  wrought  with  his  works?  " 
If  Abraham  had  refused  to  obey  Gcod,  because  the  requirement  was 
too  hard,  then  his  faith  would  have  proved  itself  a  dead  thing.  So 
we,  if  we  pretend  to  faith,  and  then  live  in  the  want  of  charity  to 
man,  will  prove  ourselves  never  to  have  believed,  from  the  heart,  in 
Christ  and  the  Gospel. 


CHARITY.  67 

Tlius  our  deeds  and  words  are  to  be  brought  into  the  judgment 
as  a  test  of  our  faith  or  unbelief.  Words  alone  will  not  answer.  If 
yre  say  to  the  hungry  and  naked,  "  be  ye  clothed  and  fed/'  but  do 
no  more,  we  have  not  charity.  Then  also,  if  we  have  philanthropy 
that  does  not  come  from  faith,  we  shall  hear  the  Judge  say,  "  I  never 
knew  you." 

We  are  all  to  be  judged.  And  the  judgment  will  be  terrible  to 
unbelievers.  They  have  not  true  charity  to  man.  They  have  not 
learned  mercy,  from  the  Teacher  of  mercy.  They  have  not  the  pure 
stream  that  comes  from  Christ  the  fountain;  so  that  they  really 
show  no  mercy.  They  may  be  in  the  church,  or  out  of  it;  skeptics, 
non-professors,  professors,  preachers ;  but  they  show  no  true  Christ- 
like mercy.  And  it  is  said,  "He  shall  have  judgment  withoxit 
mercy,  that  hath  showed  no  mercy." 

Kecall  here  the  Saviour's  parable.  It  continues  thus :  "  So,  when 
his  fellow  servants  saw  what  was  done,  they  were  very  sorry,  and 
came  and  told  their  lord  all  that  was  done.  Then  his  lord,  after  that 
he  had  called  him,  said  unto  him,  '  0  thou  wicked  servant,  I  forgave 
thee  all  that  debt,  because  thou  desiredst  me ;  shouklest  not  theu 
also  have  had  compassion  on  thy  fellow  servant,  even  as  I  had  pity 
on  thee  ? '  And  his  lord  was  wroth,  and  delivered  him  to  the  torment- 
ors till  he  should  pay  all  that  was  due  unto  him.  So  likewise  shall 
my  Heavenly  Father  do  also  unto  you,  if  ye  from  your  hfearts  forgive 
not  every  one  his  brother  their  trespasses."  Here  is  an  exhibition 
of  that  "judgment  without  mercy,"  of  which  James  speaks.  Un- 
mercifulness  is  peculiarly  a  sin  against  the  graee  of  Grod.  We  are 
taught  to  say,  "  foi"give  us  as  we  forgive  others."  When  we  go  to 
the  mercy  seat,  we  supplicate  Ood  both  to  give  and  forgive,  most 
devoutly.  When  we  turn,  then,  from  G-od  to  men,  from  prayer  to 
the  intercourse  of  life,  the  Grospel  requires  that  we  be  the  children 
of  God,  giving  and  forgiving  liberally  like  Him.  God  exerciseth 
mercy  with  great  delight;  His  "mercy  rejoice th  over  judgment." 
He  rejoiceth  to  give  and  forgive,  A  faith,  therefore,  that  truly 
accepts  His  grace,  will  manifest  its  existence  by  charity,  by  con- 
descension, kindness,  gentleness,  sympathy,  meekness.  "  Blessed  are 
the  merciful,  for  they  shall  obtain  mercy."  Jesus  "  had  compassion 
on  the  multitudes."  They  were  strangers  to  Him;  they  were  a  very 
ungodly  people.  But  He  could  not  think  of  their  sufferings  and 
spiritual  necessities  without  compassion.     His  heart  was  drawn  out 


68  CHARITY. 

toward  them.  He  rejoiced  to  forgive  them,  to  supply  their  wants; 
nay,  to  die  for  them.  "  Now,  if  any  man  have  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
he  is  none  of  His ; "  he  has  never  believed  in  His  mercy,  with  an 
intelligent  apprehension  and  a  cordial  faith.  And  he  shall  be  found 
in  the  judgment  on  the  left  hand  of  Christ,  and  he  shall  have  judg- 
ment without  mercy.  For  even  Christ  will  say,  "  Depart,  ye  cursed, 
into  everlasting  fire." 

It  is  then  obvious  why  faith  is  the  condition  of  salvation.  Mere 
command,  authority,  or  threatening,  does  not  change  a  sinful  heart. 
It  may  awaken  fear,  anxiety,  desire  ;  but  it  cannot  produce  "  love, 
which  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law."  "We  require  to  become  and  to 
see  ourselves  the  objects  of  an  infinite  compassion  and  kindness,  in 
order  to  subdue  the  pride  and  remove  the  selfishness  of  our  hearts. 
It  is  by  the  discovery  of  our  deep  and  dreadful  guilt,  our  utter  ruin 
and  helplessness,  the  infinite  compassion  and  kindness  of  God,  the 
immensity  of  the  sacrifice  made  for  us,  that  our  hearts  are  regenerated, 
cast  into  a  new  mould,  made  like  God.  And  hence  the  importance 
of  a  clear  view  of  the  fundamental  Gospel  doctrines.  Faith  is  the 
condition  of  salvation.  But  that  faith  will  undergo  the  most  rigid 
scrutiny  at  the  judgment.  It  will  be  put  to  the  test,  to  show  whether 
it  was  vital,  operative,  transforming. 

We  should  then  anticipate  the  final  judgment,  and  try  ourselves, 
in  view  of  its  scrutiny.  Have  we  faith,  true  faith  ?  That  we  are 
to  discover  mainly  by  our  actions,  and  the  motives  that  actuate 
them.  Does  our  faith  make  us  love  God  and  our  brother?  We 
love  God  if  we  love  duty.  To  the  unbeliever,  duty  is  a  bondage,  and 
sin,  freedom.  To  the  believer,  sin  is  felt  to  be  a  bondage  and  a  bur- 
den, while  duty  is  freedom.  The  unbeliever  acts  from  the  constraint 
of  fear ;  the  believer,  from  that  of  love.  The  unbeliever  looks  for 
forgiveness  on  account  of  the  smallness  of  his  sins ;  the  believer,  on 
account  of  the  greatness  of  Christ's  sacrifice.  The  unbeliever  loves 
man  for  his  excellence  and  friendship  to  himself;  the  believer 
loves  man  for  Christ's  sake,  even  his  personal  enemy.  There  may 
be  found  a  philanthropy  without  faith,  which  will  not  stand  the  final 
test.  Yet  without  philanthropy,  there  is  no  faith.  "  So  speak  ye, 
and  so  do,  as  they  that  shall  be  judged  by  the  law  of  liberty." 

But  what  must  you  do,  who  find  yourself  an  unbeliever,  and  yet 
anxious  to  be  reconciled  to  God  ?  You  must  despair  of  salvation  by 
merely  trying  to  do  good.     You  must  despair  of  working  yourself 


CHARITY.  69 

into  a  state. of  love  to  God  and  man.     You  must  despair  of  help  from 
any  being  but  Christ.     You  must  get  your  tlioughts  fully  fised  on 
Him.     The  change  you  need  is  essentially  this ;  to  see  the  entire 
hatefulness  of  your  character,  as  a  selfish,  ungodly  creature ;  to  long 
for  holiness  and  reconciliation  to  God ;  to  see  in  Christ  a  Divine  love 
and  loveliness;  to  see  that  God  delighteth  in  mercy;  that  mercy 
rejoiceth  over  judgment;  to  love  that  Divine  goodness,  to  accept  it, 
to  possess  it,  to  imitate  it.    In  an  unawakened  state,  we  are  indiflPerent 
to  the  mercy  of  God.      The  goodness  of  His  general  providence 
satisfies  us,  or,  rather.  His  gifts  satisfy  us,  without  any  regard  to  the 
love  that  bestows  them.     But  when  we  are  awakened  to  feel  the 
need  of  Divine  mercy,  then  we  are  prone  to  look  too  exclusively  at 
ourselves,  and  at  God  out  of  Christ,  ''a  consuming  fire."    This  brings 
us  neither  hope,  love,  nor  obedience.     We  are  transformed  into  the 
likeness  of  God,  by  looking  at  Him  in  the  Gospel  mirror.     And  the 
eye  that  beholds  Him  there  is  faith — faith  beholding  and  faith  ac- 
cepting His  love.     When  we  feel  the  need  of  an  infinite  mercy,  when 
we  see  an  infinite  mercy  in  God,  when  we  cordially  accept  Christ  as 
the  gift  of  God's  mercy,  then  we  believe,  to  the  saving  of  our  souls. 
And  this  faith  will  show  itself  in  the  feelings  we  manifest  daily  and 
hourly  toward  every  human  being  with  whom  we  have  anything  to 
do.     This  probationary  life  will  soon  be  terminated ;  and  then  the 
judgment  day  will  bring  our  words  and  deeds  before  the  universe, 
to  testify  to  either  our  faith  or  unbelief.     If  we  shall  tave  had  a 
faith  in  God  that  produced  a  true  philanthropy,  we  shall  be  acknowl- 
edged as  belonging  to  the  family  of  God ;  if  not,  we  shall  have, 
whatever  our  pretensions  or  hopes,  "judgment  without  mercy." 

The  momentous  inquiry.  Am  I  a  Christian  ?  is  brought  to  each  of 
us  by  the  passage  we  are  now  considering.  And  the  answer  to  it  is 
to  be  found  in  our  daily  conduct,  taking  in  part  the  form  of  an  answer 
to  another  inquiry.  How  do  I  regard  and  treat  my  fellow  man,  par- 
ticularly in  reference  to  the  classifications  made  in  society  ?  For  in- 
stance, How  am  I  afi'ected  by  the  accident  of  wealth  and  poverty  ? 
Do  I  know  the  worth  of  manhood,  the  value  of  a  soul  made  in  God's 
image,  under  whatever  garb  or  complexion  it  may  be  found  ?  This 
inquiry  strikes  deep.  It  searches  for  pride  and  selfishness,  for  envy 
and  injustice,  for  coldness  and  indifference.  These  may  lurk  in  the 
heart  of  a  true  believer.  But  the  heart  in  which  they  reign  has  no 
faith  in  Christ.     The  act  of  repentance  for  sin  has  subdued  the  pride 


70  CHARITY. 

of  the  heart.  The  reception  of  a  free,  full,  cordial,  and  infinitely 
generous  forgiveness  of  all  his  transgressions,  from  Christ,  has  struck 
a  death-blow  at  that  exclusiveness  and  indifference  which  characterize 
an  unbelieving  spirit. 

We  are  generally  accustomed  to  regard  with  mere  contempt  the 
aims  and  theories  of  Socialism.  Perhaps  a  more  just  Christian  estimate 
of  them  would  be,  to  regard  them  as  a  perversion,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  selfishness,  of  an  impulse  which  may  be  traced  to  a  higher  ■ 
and  purer  source  than  the  spirits  which  feel  its  power.  Their  error 
is  manifold.  The  truth  that  is  blended  with  their  erroneous  views 
is  one  and  simple,  but  of  incalculable  moment  to  mankind.  The 
truth  they  have  embraced  and  perverted  is  this  :  we  inust  become 
brothers.  But  they  do  not  see  that  the  brotherhood  to  be  formed 
must  be  a  brotherhood  "  in  Christ."  It  must  originate  in  the  subju- 
gation of  the  selfishness  of  individual  hearts  by  the  power  of  "  the 
law  of  liberty."  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  church  is  greatly  de- 
ficient in  brotherly  love  and  a  pure  philanthropy.  But  the  remedy 
for  this  evil  is  not  in  organizations  erected  on  any  other  foundation 
than  that  occupied  by  the  church.  Let  philanthropists,  then,  come 
into  the  church,  imperfect  as  it  is,  and  concentrate  their  labors  on 
making  it  perfect.  But  if  they  enter  the  church,  it  must  be  on  the 
terms  Christ  has  prescribed.  He  will  not  change  its  foundation,  its 
principles,  or  its  conditions  of  fellowship,  to  accommodate  them.  The 
church  of  Christ  must  be  godly  as  well  as  benevolent,  Christian  as 
well  as  philanthroj)ic ;  and  whoever  seeks  to  make  her  more  philan- 
thropic needs  no  new  organization,  no  new  principle.  She  only  needs 
to  be  made  true  to  herself,  her  principles,  her  Lord,  and  her  position, 
to  present  the  world  a  true  specimen  of  what  the  race  will  be  when 
it  becomes  one  family,  every  member  of  it  so  speaking  and  so  doing 
"  as  they  that  shall  be  judged  by  the  law  of  liberty." 


'h- 


^-<^^ 


^ 


'  f: 


C^iic^ 


THE   BREASTPLATE   OF   RiaHTEOUSNESS  AND    THE 
HELMET  OF  SALVATION", 


BY    REV.    G.    W.    SAMSON,    D.   D., 

PRESIDENT  OP  COLUMBIAN  COLLEGE,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 


Putting  on  as  a  breastplate,  the  righteousness  of  faith  and  love ;  and  as  an 
helmet,  the  hope  of  salvation. — 1  Thessalonians,  v,  8,  and  E^hesians,  vi,  14. 

Much  more,  then,  being  justified  by  His  blood,  we  shall  be  saved  from 
■wrath  through  Him.  For  if,  -when  we  were  enemies,  we  were  reconcOed  to 
.God  by  the  death  of  His  Son,  much  more,  being  reconciled,  we  shall  be  saved 
by  His  life. — Romans,  v,  9,  10. 

Christ  called  "  His  own/'  on  earth,  both  "  disciples  "  and  "  follow- 
ers;"  implying,  as  He  said,  that  they  should  first  "  learn"  of  Him, 
and  then  live  as  He  lived.  Paul,  Christ's  great  Apostle,  was  at  once 
a  teacher  and  leader  of  his  fellow  Christians ;  hence,  writing  for  all 
time,  as  a  master  ambitious  for  the  progress  of  pupils,  he  seeks  in 
his  letters  to  feed  some  as  babes  with  milk,  while  he  deals  out  for 
others  the  strong  meat  adapted  to  men  of  mature  age.  At  another 
time,  as  a  leader  in  action,  he  is  seen  drilling  the  young  soldiers  of 
Christ  for  service,  minutely  describing  their  armor,  and  seeking  to 
accustom  each  hand  to  its  several  weapons  of  ofi"ence  and  defence. 
Is  it  not  a  shame  for  a  scholar  to  be  told  that  he  "  knows  not  what 
be  the  first  principles  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  ?  "  Must  it  not  be  a 
disgrace,  even  to  the  youngest  soldier  of  Christ,  not  to  be  able  to 
distinguish  his  ''  breastplate  "  from  his  "  helmet  ?  " 

The  first  citations  we  have  made  from  Paul's  epistles  are  figurative, 
and  suggest  the  motto  of  discourse ;  the  second  is  didactic,  and  gives 
us  a  text  for  discussion.  The  thought  of  the  figure  and  of  the  plain 
statement  are  one.  The  Christian  soldier's  breastplate  is  righteous- 
ness, or  justification,  received  through  faith ;  and  his  helmet  is  sal- 
vation, or  growing  sanctification,  derived  through  hope.  The  ele- 
ments of  the  Christian's  experience,  described  to  the  Romans,  are 


72        THE  BREASTPLATE  OP  EIGHTEOUSNESS 

these  same  two;  their  relations  and  dependence  being  more  fully 
developed.  Here  is  reconciliation,  justification,  or  righteousness, 
with  the  blood,  the  death,  or  the  propitiatory  suflFering  of  Christ,  as 
its  ground,  and  with  faith  as  the  condition  of  spirit  in  us  which 
secures  it  as  ours ;  and  here  is  "  salvation,"  or  the  renovation  and 
refoi-mation  of  our  spirit  and  life,  with  the  "  life "  of  Christ,  Hia 
example  when  on  earth,  and  His  spiritual  power  sent  from  Heaven 
as  its  source,  and  with  hope  as  the  animating  impulse  in  us,  which 
makes  its  work  progress  to  its  accomplishment. 

The  three-fold  distinction  here  indicated  by  Paul,  often  overlooked 
and  even  regarded  unimportant,  and  that  by  experienced  Christians, 
is  seen  to  be  most  palpable  and  vital  too,  by  a  single  quotation  from 
the  Apostle,  illustrating  the  three  several  points  of  contrast  in  his 
words  before  us.  To  the  Hebrews  he  writes,  "  Now  is  our  salvation 
nearer  than  when  we  believed."  What  Christian,  however  limited 
his  experience,  would  not  instinctively  perceive  the  difference 'and 
the  impropriety  of  the  statement,  should  a  Gospel  teacher  render  it, 
"  Now  is  our  justification  nearer  than  when  we  believed  ?  "  In  its 
nature,  justification  differs  from  salvation;  justification  is  a  "gift"  of 
God,  complete  at  the  moment  it  is  bestowed,  whereas  salvation  is  a 
'5  work"  of  God,  pi-ogressive  in  its  execution.  To  the  Philippians, 
again,  Paul  exclaims,  "  "Work  out  your  own  salvation."  How  mani- 
fest the  impropriety,  should  the  Gospel  preacher  exhort  his  hearers, 
"  Work  out  your  own  justification  ?  "  Every  Christian  instinctively 
understands  that  the  source  of  justification  and  salvation  are  not  the 
same;  that  the  former  is  Christ's  bestowal,  directly,  without  any 
instrumentality  on  our  part;  while  salvation  is  wrought  by  His  Spirit 
through  human  agencies.  To  the  Komans  again  Paul  says  that  we 
are  "justified  by  faith,"  and  "saved  by  hope."  However  little  an 
experienced  Christian  may  have  thought  of  the  distinction  between 
"faith  and  hope,  every  one  would  feel  that  there  was  something  wrong 
in  the  statement,  should  it  be  said,  "we  are  justified  by  hope."  These 
two  exercises  of  the  Christian,  corresponding  accompaniments  of 
the  gift  and  the  work  of  God,  are  distinct  in  theii-  cliaracter  and  in- 
fluence, 

Here,  then,  is  the  theme  of  our  discourse,  and  its  divisions ;  the 

DISTINCTION  BETWEEN  THE  GIFT  OF  JUSTIFICATION  AND  THE 
WORK  OF  SALVATION  :  FIRST,  IN  THEIR  NATURE;  SECOND,  IN  THEIR 
SOURCE ;  AND,  THIRD,  IN  THEIR  RESULT. 


AND  THE  HELMET  OF  SALVATION.  73 

We  are  to  consider,  then — 

I.  The  distinctive  NATURE  OF  JUSTIFICATION,  in  its  relation  to 
SALVATION.  This  distinction  is  readily  perceived  in  our  religious 
experience;  as  well  as  in  Scripture  teax3liing,  which  is  but  the  unerr- 
ing record  of  human  experience. 

Dr.  Duff,  the  able  Scotch  missionary  at  Calcutta,  writes  thus  of  a 
Muhammedan  convert  recently  baptized :  "  A  few  days  before  his 
baptism,  I  asked  him  what  was  the  vital  point  in  which  he  found 
Muhammedanism  most  deficient,  and  which  he  felt  that  Christianity 
satisfactorily  supplied.  His  prompt  reply  was,  '  3Iuhammedanism 
is  full  of  the  mercy  of  God.  While  I  had'  no  real  consciousness  of 
inward  guilt  as  a  breaker  of  God's  law,  this  satisfied  me.  But  wher> 
I  felt  myself  guilty  before  God,  and  a  transgressor  of  His  law,  I  felt 
also  that  it  was  not  with  God's  mercy,  but  with  God's  justice,  I  had 
to  do.  How  to  meet  the  claims  of  God's  justice,  Mlihammedanism 
has  made  no  provision;  but  this  is  the  very  thing  which  I  have  found 
fully  accomplished  by  the  atoning  sacrifice  of  Christ  on  the  Cross ; 
and  therefore  Christianity  is  now  the  only  adequate  religion  for  me^ 
a  guilty  sinner.' " 

I  have  conversed  with  a  man  of  most  intelligent  and  cultivated 
mind,  who  has  declared  and  reiterated  the  declaration,  that,  so  far  as 
human  law  is  concerned,  the  man  who  has  violated  the  law  can  never 
be  a  justified  man  again ;  as  truly  just  as  if  he  had  never  broken  the 
law,  and  freed  from  all  consciousness  of  self-condemnation  on  that 
account.  And  when  I  have  endeavored  to  unfold  to  him  the  idea, 
before  little  pondered,  that  through  Christ's  sacrifice  the  man  who 
has  thus  violated  the  Divine  law  is  restored  to  this  perfect  integrity 
again,  he  has  exclaimed,  "  I  won't  believe  it !  It  is  impossible  !  It  is 
a  contradiction  ! "  When,  then,  again  I  have  urged — ''  Then  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  salvation  possible,  for  I  am  sure  I  can  have  no 
heaven  anywhere,  conscious  as  I  am  that  I  have  been  untnie  to  the 
eternal  law  of  right,  unless  I  can  among  angels  hold  up  my  head 
with  a  consciousness  that  God  is  Just,  as  well  as  merciful  in  forgiving 
my  transgressions,  and  admitting  me  to  the  companionship  of  those 
that  have  been  forever  pure" — he  was  obliged  to  admit  it;  and 
knew  not  which  to  allow,  either  that  there  is  no  salvation  for  sinful 
man,  or  that  justification  as  the  New  Testament  describes  it  is  pos- 
sible. 

Where,  now,  is  the  soul  to  be  found  that  does  not  yearn  after  such 


74        THE  BREASTPLATE  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS 

a  consummation  of  blessedness  for  his  own  spirit;  to  feel,  not  simply 
that  he  is  reconciled  to  God,  subdued  by  His  mercy,  but,  as  the  old 
writers,  with  more  of  propriety  than  we  now  are  ready  to  admit,  used  to 
say,  that "  God  is  reconciled  to  us."  The  idea  is,  that  the  law  of  justice, 
and  God,  as  its  author,  can  be  reconciled  to  the  fact  of  our  being  treated 
as  if  we  never  had  done  wrong,  and  that,  consistently  with  His  own 
character,  as  a  just  being  before  the  pure  in  heaven,  He  can  make  it 
true  that  we  are  Just  ijied. 

Certainly  this  has  been  the  aspiration  of  the  men  whom  the  in- 
spired Word  of  God  presents  as  examples  for  us.  What  else  was  in 
the  minds  of  the  patriarchs  Job  and  Abraham,  when  one  said,  "  How 
shall  a  man  be  just  with  God?"  and  the  other  exclaimed,  "Shall 
not  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  do  right?"  Surely,  the  great  ex- 
pounder of  New  Testament  truth  did  not  mistake  when  he  saw  this 
struggling,  longing,  in  the  soul  of  guilty  David,  as  he  plead,  "  Have 
merer/  on  me,  0  God !  According  unto  Thy  loving  kindness,  ac- 
cording unto  the  multitude  of  Thy  tender  mercies,  blot  out  my  trans- 
gressions ; "  and  yet  could  not  be  satisfied  with  mercy,  and  asked  for 
the  accomplishment  of  his  heart's  farther  demand,  "That  Thou 
mightest  be  justified  when  Thou  speakest,  and  be  clear  when  Thou 
judgest;"  making  the  sum  of  the  favor  he,  as  a  sinful  man,  sought, 
this,  "  Blessed  is  the  man  to  whom  the  Lord  imputeth  not  iniquity/'  > 
And,  since  this  is  the  universal  demand  of  the  soul  conscious  of  its 
spiritual  want,  we  should  be  prepared  to  appreciate  Pa;ul's  peculiar 
statement  to  the  intelligent  Romans,  that  he  was  "  not  ashamed  of," 
he  "  gloried  in  the  Gospel,"  not  because  it  was  a  special  exhibition 
of  the  "  mercy,"  or  even  the  "  love  of  God,"  but  "  because  therein  is 
the  righteousness  of  God  revealed,"  *  *  *  "  that  God  might  be 
just  and  the  justifier  of  him  that  believeth  in  Jesus." 

Justification,  then,  is  that  peculiar  favor  which  makes  it  possible 
that  God  should  consistently  remit,  pass  by,  forgive,  and  blot  out, 
transgressions  we  have  committed.  When,  however,  this  is  secured, 
our  "salvation"  is  yet  a  work  only  begun.  Indeed^  salvation,  in  the 
sense  of  the  word  as  employed  by  Paul,  is,  from  beginning  to  end,  a 
work  distinct  from  justification.  When  my  sin  past  is  remitted,  I  am 
thereby  possessed  of  a  spirit  averse  to  sin  in-  the  future.  It  is  an 
added  bestowal  when  the  new  spirit  is  wrought  in  me.  This  it  is 
which,  in  Paul's  language,  constitutes  "salvation;"  a  new  spirit, 
begotten,  indeed,  at  the  hour  the  soul  is  justified  by  faith  in  Christ, 


AND   THE   HELMET   OF   SALVATION.  75 

but  which  is  to  increase  in  power  and  influence,  according  to  the 
declaration,  "  He  which  hath  begun  a  good  work  in  you,  will  perform 
it  until  the  day  of  Jesus  Christ."  It  is  this  work  which  the  old 
divines  called  "regeneration  and  sanctification,"  which,  in  Paul's 
comprehensive  language,  is  "salvation." 

And  why  should  not  the  word  "  salvation,"  as  applied  to  the  soul, 
take  this  comprehensive  meaning  ?  We  may  indeed  exclaim,  using 
the  word  in  a  limited  sense,  of  a  man  on  a  burning  wreck,  "  He  is 
safe ! "  the  moment  the  life-boat,  manned  by  sturdy,  resolute,  and 
humane  oai-smen,  pushes  from  the  shore ;  but,  in  the  strict  sensd*of 
the  word,  the  man  is  not  saved  till  his  feet  touch  the  shore.  We 
may  in  hope  exclaim  of  a  wandering  prodigal,  "  He  is  saved !"  tl^e 
hour  when  a  pious  parent,  having  wrestled  with  God  long  in  prayer, 
is  able  to  say,  "  I  know  that  my  prayer  is  answered ; "  and  yet  the 
prodigal,  strictly  speaking,  is  not  saved  until  the  kst  lingerings  of 
wrong  desire  have  been  eradicated  from  his  nature.  So  the  hosts  of 
Heaven  may  shout  over  a  repenting  sinner,  "  The  lost  is  saved ! "  at 
the  hour  of  his  conversion ;  while  still  they  are  to  be  "  ministering 
spirits  sent  forth  to  minister  for  them  who  shall  be  heirs  of  salva- 
tion," and  while  these  saved  ones  themselves  may,  at  each  stage  of 
that  angel  ministry,  exclaim,  "Now  is  our  salvation  nearer  than 
when  we  believed ! "  From  the  very  nature  of  our  idea  of  salvation, 
we  can  see  and  feel  the  force  of  those  expressions  which  speak  of  it 
in  the  Christian  as  a  work  only  begun,  and  yet  to  be'  wrought  out, 
while  our  idea  of  the  nature  of  justification  is  entirely  distinct. 

Our  minds  are  naturally  drawn,  after  this  point  is  settled,  to  pon- 
der the  second  truth  suggested  in  its  order  by  the  Apostle — 

II.  The  distinctive  SOURCE  or  GROUND  of  justification  and  of  sal- 
vation presented  in  the  contrast  of  the  DEATH  and  the  life  of  Christ. 

How  manifest  the  distinction  made  between  the  death  of  Christ 
and  the  life  of  Christ,  as  to  their  ef&cacy  in  securing  spiritual  bless- 
ing for  sinful  men.  Here  it  is  said  that  we  are  "  reconciled  "  to  God  j 
we  are  "justified"  "by  the  hhod,"  "by  the  death"  of  Christ;  and 
are  "  saved  by  His  life." 

This  idea,  that  on  account  of  what  His  Son  sufiered  in  His  death, 
God  is  just  in  justifying  us  sinful  creatures  of  His,  is  one  that  can 
never  be  fully  comprehended  and  appreciated  by  a  finite  mind ;  and, 
to  the  man  unrenewed  and  untaught  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  it  seems  an 
absurdity.  Both  these  suggestions  the  Scriptures  make.  It  is  through 


76  THE  BREASTPLATE  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS 

the  church,  men  saved  by  Christ,  that  "  to  principalities  and  powers 
in  heavenly  places  "  is  "made  known  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God." 
The  effect  of  Christ's  death,  even  upon  angels,  is  such  that  "  all 
things  in  heaven "  are  reconciled  to  God  through  Him.  And  yet 
they  continually  *'  desire  to  look  into  "  these  things,  comprehending 
only  enough  to  satisfy  them  that  God  is  perfect  in  His  dealings 
with  His  creatures ;  and  thus  they  are  so  bound  to  Him  in  love,  that 
no  more  from  their  ranks  will  ever  prove  like  those  who  "  kept  not 
their  first  estate."  Among  men,  boasting  of  their  wisdom,  but  thor- 
oi^hly  depraved  in  their  notions  of  heavenly  excellence,  "  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Cross  is  foolishness."  The  idea  that  we  can  be  justified  on 
account  of  what  Christ  suffered  is  absurd.  To  us,  however,  "  that 
believe,"  it  is  "  the  wisdom  of  God  and  the  power  of  God; "  even  as 
it  seems  to  pure  angels. 

How  to  explain  his  own  idea,  the  thoughtful  Christian  may  be  at 
a  loss.  The  clear-thinking  Bible  interpreters  of  the  past  age  used  to 
take  hold  of  the  common  expression,  that  Christ  "  purchased  us  with 
His  blood ; "  and  with  an  application,  perhaps  too  much  pertaining 
to  "  earthly  things,"  they  represented  the  sufferings  of  Christ  as  an 
equivalent  outweighing,  in  the  scales  of  justice,  all  that  the  race  of 
man  united  could  forever  suffer  for  their  sins.  Others,  again,  look- 
ing at  the  idea  of  social  exaltation  in  position,  rather  than  of  material 
excellence,  have  dwelt  on  and  developed  the  statement  that  he  "ran- 
somed" us  in  "dying  for"  man;  and  in  the  picture  of  a  sovereign 
condescending  to  receive  in  his  person  the  penalty  due  to  his  rebel 
subjects,  an  approximation  to  the  idea  that  Christ  the  Creator  <3ied 
for  man  the  creature's  sin,  has  been  attempted.  Perhaps  yet  another 
confirming  illustration  may  shadow  the  great  truth.  When  a  friend 
dear  to  me  lies  sick,  to  bring  but  a  momentary  comfort  to  him,  I  go 
forth  to  the  field,  and  with  conscious  integrity  take  the  life  of  a 
score  of  the  little  birds  whose  flesh  may  give  him  nourishment  for  a 
day.  In  my  esteem,  millions  of  such  inferior  lives  are  less  than  an 
equivalent  for  that  of  an  intelligent  being  like  man.  I  am  right 
in  this  instinctive  feeling;  and  so  all  heaven  and  earth  are  right  in 
the  instinctive  impression  that  the  life  of  Him  who  is  King  of  kings 
and  Lord  of  lords,  yea.  Maker  and  Monarch,  is  -  more  than,  immeas- 
urably more  than  the  life*  of  the  whole  race  of  man,  from  Adam  to 
the  last  born  on  earth.     The  one  may  be  substituted  for  the  other. 

This  indeed  involves  a  truth,  against  which  the  mind  of  man  may 


AND   THE   HELMET   OP   SALVATION.  77 

frame  an  objection ;  one,  however,  wliich  is  the  suggestion  of  a  wrong 
spirit,  not  of  a  really  erring  understanding.  Thus,  it  is  said,  the  inno- 
cent is  made  to  suffer  for  the  guilty !  Yes,  and  this  is  the  laio  of 
universal  being  where  sin  exists.  Angels  in  heaven  became  tempters 
to  man,  and  our  first  parents  suffered,  innocence  for  guilt.  A  de- 
praved son  and  brother  inherited  the  nature  of  his  depraved  parents; 
and  the  child  suffered  for  the  parent's  guilt,  and  again,  in  their  turn, 
the  parent  for  the  child's  bloody  wickedness ;  and  this  great  law  of 
G-od's  appointment  (only  partially  true,  indeed)  became  the  universal 
law  for  man.  Where  and  when  on  earth  have  not  the  comparatively- 
speaking  innocent  been  involved  with  the  guilty  in  flood  and  fire,  in 
cold  and  heat,  in  famine,  pestilence,  war,  in  social  and  domestic 
wretchedness  ?  And  if,  where  there  may  be  a  doubt,  since  "all  have 
sinned,"  and  "  death  has  come  on  all  because  all  have  sinned,"  why 
should  not  the  imperfect  shadow  in  all  human  history  have  its  perfect 
substance  in  Jesus,  who  "  knew  no  sin,''  and  yet  "  was  made  sin  for 
us ! "  And  if,  where  the  sufferer  for  another  may  be  supposed 
not  to  be  a  voluntary  sacrifice,  God  has  nevertheless  ordained  that 
the  innocent  be  involved  with  and  for  the  guilty,  why  should  it  not  be 
that  the  imperfect  copy  of  God's  ordinance  should  be  consummated  in 
the  model  of  Him  who  "gave  Himself"  a  free-will  offering,  saying, 
with  exulting  voice,  as  he  proffered  the  sacrifice,  "  Lo,  I  come ;  I  de- 
light to  do  Thy  will,  0  God ! "  Ah,  the  death  and  suffering  of  Jesus, 
my  Saviour,  in  the  view  of  perfect  intelligence,  love,  and  right,  do 
so  appear  in  heaven,  that  God  is  just  while  He  justifies  the  ungodly 
who  believe  in  Jesus. 

The  first  moment's  reflection,  now,  suggests  the  entire  difference 
of  the  statement  that  we  are  "  saved  by  His  life."  Salvation  is  the 
begetting  of  the  new  spirit  in  me,  which,  while  I  am  justified  for  sin 
committed,  struggles  in  me  for  the  mastery  over  my  sinful  nature, 
until  its  triumph  is  complete.  The  ground,  the  source  «f  this,  is- the 
life  of  Christ. 

There  are  two  things  here  hinted ;  there  are  two  elements  in  the 
power  of  Christ's  life  to  renew  me.  If  the  need  which  I  as  a  sinful 
man  have  of  justification  convinces  me  that  I  am  perfectly  helpless, 
and  that,  if  justified  at  all,  it  must  be  a  gift  directly  provided  and 
wholly  furnished  by  another,  this  beginning  and  growth  of  a  new 
spirit  in  me  I  am  equally  satisfied  is  a  worh,  in  which  I  have  a  re- 
sponsibility, though  for  its  commencement  ,and  progress  in  me  all 


78        THE  BREASTPLATE  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS 

my  moral  power  is  utterly  inadequate.  Here,  then,  the  life  of  Christ, 
it  is  hinted,  is  the  source  to  which  I  must  look  for  this  work.  What 
means  the  suggestion  ?  Jesus  lived  as  a  man,  from  childhood  up  to 
maturity;  and  is  it  this  earthly  life  in  the  body  to  which  reference 
is  made  ?  Jesus  lives  now;  being  ascended  from  earth  in  a  spiritual 
body,  "  He  ever  liveth  to  intercede  for  us ; "  and  is  it  this  heavenly 
life  to  which  Paul  alludes?     Or  is  it  both ? 

We  arc  now  in  the  flesh,  and  in  this  state  have  spirits  of  our  own, 
clogged,  indeed,  by  this  clay.  But  these  dead  spirits  are  addressed, 
and  the  commands  of  Grod's  law  are  upon  them.  He  commands  us  to 
repent,  believe,  love,  and  follow  Christ.  Of  course,  the  work  of  salva/- 
tion  is  a  work  that  we  are  to  perform.  At  the  same  time,  when  these 
commands  come  in  all  their  purity,  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
Grod  with  all  thy  heart,"  where  is  the  man  that  ever  did  or  ever  can 
perform  it?  If  the  death  of  Christ  has  justified  us,  we  need  a  new 
Divine  power  to  save  us.  And  what  mind  now  not  wilfully  per- 
verse, what  soul  that  prays  to  be  saved,  feels  not  that  his  whole  case  is 
met  when  inspired  Paul  directs,  "■  Work  out  your  oion  salvation  with 
fear  and  trembling,  for  it  is  God  that  worketh  in  you  to  will  and  to 
do  of  His  good  pleasure." 

Now,  it  is  the  "life  "  of  Christ  that  does  this  work  of  God.  Sinful 
•as  we  all  are,  with  no  one  example  of  perfect  obedience  to  G-od's  law 
before  us,  we  need  a  model.  Christ's  life  in  the  flesh  on  earth  is  that 
model.  Were  He  to-day  living  in  the  body,  near  to  and  with  us,  we 
might  see  with  the  eye  His  life.  Since  He  is  not,  for  wise  reasons, 
now  in  the  flesh.  His  life,  long  since  passed,  must,  in  historic  records, 
be  brought  before  us;  and  this  is  done  in  the  Word  of  Christ.  But  as 
a  model  placed  before  an  experienced  man  does  not  give  him  the 
artist's  powers  to  copy  after  it,  so  the  presence  of  the  life  of  Jesus, 
even  when  in  person  He  was  on  earth,  did  not  give  men  the  power 
to  be  like  Him.  As  the  life  of  a  man  is  the  life  of  his  soul,  so  the 
life  of  Christ  was  His  spirit's  life.  And  that  spirit's  life,  Divine  in 
nature  and  power,  must  be  communicated  to  us,  or  We  are  not  saved ; 
we  have  not  the  new  spirit  begotten  within  us,  which,  amid  our  fleshly 
imperfection,  is  to  grow  into  the  same  image  with  Christ,  from  glory 
to  glory.  Need  any  mind  that  seeks  salvation,  then,  stumble  at 
the  statement  that  we  are  "begotten  of  the  Word"  of  God,  and  that 
Christ's  prayer  is,  "  Sanctify  them  through  Thy  truth ;  Thy  Word  is 
truth ;"  or  at  the  correspondent  statements,  we  are  "begotten  of  the 


AND   THE   HELMET   OF   SALVATION.  79 

Spirit  of  Gtod;"  and  "wlien  He,  tlie  Spirit  of  Truth,  is  come,  He  shall 
guide  you  into  all  truth."  It  is  the  life  of  Christ  presented  to  the 
mind  by  His  Word,  and  made  effectual  in  its  influence  by  His  Spirit, 
through  which  we  are  saved. 

How  distinctly  marked  fo  the  experienced  Christian,  how  precious 
to  him,  these  differing  truths !  Transpose  these  statements ;  say  to 
him,  "  We  are  justified  by  the  Word  and  Spirit  of  Grod;"  exhort 
him,  "Work  out  your  own  justification j "  and  the  youngest  disciple 
of  Christ  instinctively  perceives  and  feels  the  violence  done  to  Gospel 
truth.  The  youngest  Christian  knows  the  difference,  in  his  own  soul, 
of  the  power  of  Christ's  death  and  the  power  of  Christ's  life. 

We  are  led  on  thus,  after  looking  at  the  abstract  principles  that- 
differ,  justification  and  salvation,  and  then,  looking  at  the  person  of 
Him  who  bestowed  them,  in  whom  His  life  differs  from  His  death — 
we  are  led  to  look  at  ourselves,  at  the  differing  states  of  mind,  the 
differing  emotions  with  which  we  are  possessed  when  dwelling  on 
these  two  principles,  and  relying  upon  these  two  grounds  of  our  own 
redemption  and  salvation. 

III.  TJie  distinctive  RESULT  in  us  of  justification  and  saZvatioTif 
seen  in  the  contrast  of  Christian  faith  and  Christian  HOPE. 

A  common  ornament  for  an  armlet,  in  our  day,  consists  of  the 
three  emblems — the  cross,  anchor,  and  heart.  Some  think  so  little, 
that  though  they  perceive  there  are  three  forms,  they, see  not  the 
three  ideas.  Writing  to  the  Corinthians,  ambitious  of  miraculous 
gifts,  rather  than  to  have  a  name  written  in  heaven,  by  possessing  the 
spirit  of  that  abode,  Paul  analyzes  that  spirit  thus :  "  Now  abideth 
faith,  hope,  charity,  these  three ;  but  the  greatest  of  these  is  charity." 
Here  is  a  form  of  words;  but  the  idea  may  be  as  little  thought  of  as 
in  the  three  emblems  on  the  armlet.  We  readily  distinguish  the  last, 
the  ultimate  grace,  love  in  action,  or  charity,  from  faith  and  hope ; 
we  must  learn,  also,  to  distinguish  those  two  former,  "faith  and 
hope,"  one  from  the  other. 

We  have  certainly  the  Apostle's  own  clue  to  the  difference,  in  his 
careful  and  distinct  use  of  the  two  words.  In  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  we  read  that  we  are  "justified  by  faith,"  and  "saved  by 
hope."  More  than  once,  in  figures  addressed  to  other  churches,  we 
read  of  the  "  breastplate  of  faith  and  love,"  of  "  the  shield  of  faith," 
and  of  "the  breastplate  of  righteousness,"  or  "justification;"  but  we 
read  of  "  the  helmet  of  salvation,"  and  of  "  the  helmet  the  hope  of 


y(J  THE   BREASTPLATE   OF   RIGHTEOUSNESS 

salvation."  As  carefully  as  justification  and  salvation  are  distin- 
guislied,  so  carefully  are  faith  and  hope,  their  accompanying  emotions 
in  us.  Let  us  follow  up  his  hint,  remarking  first  the  distinction  we 
make  in  our  worldly  employ  of  these  terms,  and  then  observing  how 
this  meaning  of  the  words  in  themselves  is  made  by  the  Apostle  to 
illustrate  truths  in  Christian  experience. 

We  are  accustomed  to  say,  "  I  helieve  the  sun  will  rise  to-morrow," 
and  "  I  liope  it  will  be  fair  weather  to-morrow."  To  reverse  the 
statement,  and  to  say,  "I  hope  the  sun  will  rise  to-morrow,"  would  be 
doing  violence  to  something  within  us ;  and  what  is  that  something  ? 
Trace  it  up,  and  we  find  this  to  be  our  instinctive  conviction.  When 
any  fact  or  event  anticipated  rests  upon  a  regularly  acting  law  of  the 
Creator,  known  to  me  to  be  sure  in  its  operation,  my  conviction  of  the 
certainty  of  the  result  is  such  that  I  say,  unhesitatingly,  ''  I  helieve 
that."  When,  however,  that  fact  or  event  depends  on  an  irregularly 
acting  cause,  or  one  supposed  by  me  to  be  irregular,  I  have  not  the 
assurance  to  say  "I  helieve;"  I  can  only  say  " I  Aojje."  There  is 
therefore  an  intellectual  difi'erence  between  the  exercises  of  faith  and 
hope.  Yet  again.  We  say  of  the  humane  father  of  an  abandoned 
son,  "  I  helieve  the  father  would  receive  his  son  again ; "  and  of  the 
son,  "  I  lioiie  he  will  be  reclaimed."  Besides  the  intellectual  diflFer- 
.  ence  just  mentioned,  there  is  a  moral  difi'erence  between  the  exercises 
of  faith  and  hope.  Hope  implies  a  wish,  a  desire,  which  faith  does 
not;  for  when  I  say  I  hope  the  son  will  be  reclaimed,  I  express  a  wish 
rather  than  an  expectation;  whereas  no  special  desire,  but  a  mere 
conviction,  is  uttered  when  I  say,  "  I  believe  the  father  will  receive 
his  child."  When,  now,  Paul  wrote,  as  he  was  moved  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  a  sure  record  of  spiritual  truth,  it  was  in  human  language 
he  addressed  men  who  knew  the  ideas  expressed  by  the  words  of 
language. 

When  Paul  says  that  we  are  "justified  by  faith,"  then  he  means 
to  imply  that  the  exercise  of  our  mind  is  a  conviction  resting  upon 
testimony  sure  and  certain ;  hope  would  not  be  strong  enough  to 
express  the  idea.  The  death  of  Christ,  a  fact  that  had  just  passed 
before  their  eyes,  meant  something ;  and  what  could  it  be  that  led 
Christ  to  shed  His  blood  in  agony,  but  this,  that  through  the  rent 
vail  of  His  flesh  a  new  way  of  near  approach  to  God,  of  reconcilia- 
tion, of  justification  with  Him,  was  provided.  Before  Christ  came, 
to  the  children  of  Abraham  before  the  Anointed  One  had  died,  to 


AND   THE   HELMET   OF   SALVATION.  81 

•  most  of  Israel,  the  justification  provided  by  Christ  and  all  its  conse- 
quent blessings  was  a  matter  only  of  hope;  so  that  Paul  said  to 
Agrippa,  "  For  the  hope  of  the  promise  made  of  God  unto  our  fathers, 
I  now  stand  and  am  judged."  True,  to  a  few  spirits  like  iVbraham, 
the  death  of  Christ  and  its  results  was  a  matter  of  faith  before  He 
came;  but  it  was  especially  after  His  death,  as  Paul  tells  the  Jews 
of  his  day,  thai  the  mystery  of  Christ,  hid  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world,  was  revealed,  as  in  other  ages  it  was  not  made  known  unto 
the  sons  of  men.  What  a  clear  light,  what  a  radiance  of  distinct- 
ness, a  little  careful  thought  upon  the  inspired  statements,  exemplified 
as  they  are  in  our  experience,  thus  throws  on  the  way  of  life  by 
Christ.  Faith,  a  conviction  founded  upon  a  fact  that  has  occurred, 
faith  in  the  propitiatory  sacrifice  of  Christ,  is  the  act  of  our  mind 
which  accompanies  and  secures  justification  before  Clod. 

When  Paul,  again,  declares  that  we  are  "  saved  by  hope,"  he  im- 
plies that  the  work  of  salvation,  which  accompanies  the  gift  of  justi- 
fication, is  a  matter  relating  to  a  fickle,  uncertain,  unreliable  being; 
God  is  unchangeable  and  reliable ;  and  if  He  has  given  His  Son  to 
die,  the  object  for  which  He  gave  Him  we  may  be  certain  is  secured. 
But  sinful  man,  even  though  renewed,  is  an  uncertain,  unreliable 
creature.  The  very  nature  of  sin  is,  that  it  is  irrational;  no 
explanation  can  be  given  why  man  first  sinned ;  and  no  man  can 
foresee  to  what  length  a  being  who  has  once  sinned  will  go.  All  I 
can  say  about  my  salvation  is,  I  hope  that  the  work  begun  in  me 
will  be  carried  on  unto  perfection.  I  am  justified  by  faith;  but  I 
am  saved  only  by  hope. 

Youthful  soldiers  of  Christ,  you  may  be  trained  in  diff'ereut  schools; 
but  are  we  not  all  one  community,  one  people  of  the  living  God  ! 
You  may  wear  a  difi'ering  uniform,  and  learn  the  drill  of  difi"ering 
corps;  but  is  not  our  banner  one,  and  even  our  armor  substantially 
the  same  ?  Certainly  our  order  book,  and  our  field  duty  read  from  it, 
is  the  same.  In  the  light  of  the  truth,  we  have  considered  how  near 
to  each  other  Christians  seem  to  be,  in  thought  and  feeling,  if  not 
in  word  and  action. 

Why  should  not  the  day  dawn  when  Christians  shall  no  longer 
disagree  in  doctrinal  views  ?  Human  forms  and  features  never  will 
be  cast  in  the  same  mould;  and  no  more  will  human  conceptions 
and  expressions.  And  yet  we  are  one  distinct  race  among  animate 
beings  in  physical  structure,  after  all  our  varieties :  and  so  we  may  be 


82  THE   BREASTPLATE   OF   RIGHTEOUSNESS 

"one  in  mind,"  after  all  our  differences.  How  manifestly  one  class 
of  thinkers,  one  branch  of  the  Christian  church,  has  been  absorbed 
with  one  of  the  two  classes  of  truth  we  have  pondered,  while  another 
class  have  been  energized  by  its  opposite.  But  how  plainly  in  our 
youthful  first-glance  Christian  impressions,  and  in  our  mature  life- 
long Christian  experience,  all  truth  comes  more  and  more  to  assume 
consistency,  and  to  make  up  one  perfect  whole.  Ponder  the  lesson ; 
it  is  not  truth  in  its  letter,  nor  Christian  experience  in  its  spirit, 
which  is  to  change ;  but  our  comprehensiveness  in  viewing  our  own 
convictions,  and  in  uttering  our  own  experience,  is  to  grow  unto 
perfection.  Why,  then,  should  not  the  Christian  church  be  one,  ac- 
cording to  Jesus'  last  intercession  for  His  disciples,  "I  pray  that  they 
may  be  one."  Domestic  relationships  are  not  to  be  annihilated;  my 
family  must  be  my  own.  But  though,  in  perfecting  society,  families 
may  ever  remain  distinct,  may  not  communities  be  more  united,  and 
society  more  one  ?  Paul's  practical  commentary  on  the  sentiment  of 
our  Lord  was  given  to  the  Philippian  church,  thus:  ''If  there  be, 
therefore,  any  consolation  in  Christ,  if  any  comfort  of  love,  if  any 
fellowship  of  the  Spirit,  if  any  bowels  and  mercies,  fulfil  ye  my  joy, 
that  ye  be  like  minded,  having  the  same  love,  being  of  one  accord, 
of  one  mind.  *  *  *  Brethren,  I  count  not  myself  to  have  appre- 
hended ;  but  this  one  thing  I  do,  forgetting  those  things  which  are 
behind,  and  reaching  forth  unto  those  things  which  are  before,  I 
press  toward  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in 
Christ  Jesus.  Let  us  therefore,  as  many  as  be  perfect,  be  thus 
minded ;  and  if  in  anything  ye  be  otherwise  minded,  God  shall  reveal 
even  this  unto  you.  Nevertheless,  whereto  we  have  already  attained, 
let  us  walk  by  the  same  rule,  let  us  mind  the  same  thing."  Does 
language  like  this  need  any  comment  to  the  young  Christian  of  our 
day,  yearning  for  the  time  when  the  church  shall  be  one  ! 

Why  then,  again,  should  not  the  individual  membership  of  the 
church  of  Christ  reach  a  higher  stage  of  development  ?  Mingling 
together  with  the  spirit  Paul  has  described,  as  the  early  converted 
and  most  devoted  of  the  youth  of  our  churches  do,  why  should  they 
not  come  to  appreciate  the  truth  each  holds,  and  the  grace  which 
each  displays,  and  learn  to  combine  them  in  their  individual  charac- 
ters and  lives  ?  The  spij-it  of  the  world  is  downward ;  and  the  more 
men  of  the  world  mingle,  the  more  they  take  on  each  others'  errors 
and  faults,  and  the  more  society  tends  to   corruption.     But  the 


AND   THE   HELMET   OF   SALVATION.  83 

Spirit  of  Christ  leads  upward ;  and  the  more  often  Christians  speak 
with  each  other,  the  more  each  must  "  grow  in  grace  and  in  the 
knowledge  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

Why  then,  finally,  should  not  a  new  "  power  from  on  high  "  be 
brought  to  bear,  leading  unrenewed  men  to  embrace  Christ's  religion  ? 
Jesus  made  the  appeal  of  His  plea,  " I  pray  that  they  may  be  one" 
Ms:  "That  the  world  may  know  that  Thou  hast  sent  Me."  That 
power  has  been  felt  within  the  last  five  years,  as  never  before  in  the 
Christian  church.  The  lips  of  objectors  have  been  sealed;  and  the 
tono'ue  of  sincere  men  of  the  world  has  been  unlocked  to  confess 
their  convictions.  The  class  of  men  whom  apathy  in  one  class  of 
Christians'and  fervor  in  another  has  failed  to  reach,  has  been  moved 
by  the  gentle  pervading  spirit,  bringing  out  universal  Christian  faith, 
hope,  and  love.  The  hopeful  are  made  disciples,  and  the  hopeless 
are  reached  as  never  before. 

Spirit  of  truth  and  grace,  out  of  the  perfect  word  of  Christ's  truth, 
thoroughly  furnish  the  minds,  and  out  of  the  infinite  fullness  of  Jesus' 
grace  endue  with  His  Spirit  the  young  men  of  our  land  and  age. 
May  they  be  thoroughly  instructed  in  Thy  will,  and  so  thoroughly 
furnished  unto  every  good  work.  May  they  stand,  having  girt  on 
the  whole  armor  of  the  Gospel ;  and  having  done  all,  may  they  not 
only  stand,  but  withstand,  in  the  evil  day ! 


^^v.^. 


"H.. 


'-^t^-lt^^^ejJ       (^  ■ 


1?  JAMIXS  (ID.ARjroDREWg. 


86  A  WARNING   TO   BACKSLIDERS. 

parting  from  the  living  God.  The  nations  around  them  were  idol- 
aters; their  altars  were  in  all  directions,  on  hill  tops  and  under  green 
trees ;  the  gods  to  whom  they  bowed  were  tangible — they  could  be 
looked  upon  and  handled ;  their  sacred  festivals  and  mysteries  were 
not  only  occasions  of  grand  and  pompous  display,  but  in  many  in- 
stances were  seasons  of  wild  indulgence — passion,  appetite,  and  un- 
bridled lust,  held  uUcontrolled  sway ;  and  not  only  did  their  religion 
fail  to  rebuke  these  riotous  indulgences,  but  a  voice  from  the  shrines 
of  their  deities,  and  the  examples  of  their  gods  then»selves,  invited 
to  unrestrained  lust  and  debauchery.  Not  only  were  their  gods 
worshipped  by  fornicators,  but  fornication  itself  was  a  part  of  the 
sacred  services,  in  many  instances.  But  He  who  called  Himself  the 
God  of  Israel  was  invisible.  A  dense  cloud  shrouded  His  dwell- 
ing-place. No  sounds  of  bacchanalian  revelry,  no  note  of  lewdness, 
dishonored  the  worship  performed  at  His  shrine;  but  about  His 
tabernacle,  or  His  wide,  glorious  temple,  the  thousands  of  Israel 
gathered  to  pour  forth  the  song  and  the  shout  of  holy  and  devout 
gratitude  to  the  all-mighty  but  invisible  Being,  whose  pillar  of  cloud 
and  fire  announced  to  the  hosts  of  Zion,  that  God,  the  Eternal,  the 
Omnipotent,  the  Lord  of  all  worlds,  and  emphatically  their  God,  was 
among  them. 

But  the  sons  of  Jacob  were  a  sensual  and  stupid  generation,  gov- 
erned largely  by  the  objects  of  sense,  and  hence  they  were  constantly 
backsliding  from  the  worship  of  Jehovah.  To  prevent  this  state  of 
things,  God  hedged  them  in  by  numerous  and  peculiar  institutions, 
the  design  of  which  was  to  keep  them  separate  from  the  idolaters 
around  them ;  but  these  usages  and  laws  became  irksome  to  a  peo- 
ple whose  hearts  were  alien  from  the  spirituality  of  God's  worship. 
God  forbade  them  the  use  of  cavalry,  that  they  might  not  be  tempted 
to  enter  into  the  schemes  ©f  conquest  with  the  nations  around  them. 
The  rite  of  circumcision,  and  the  institution  of  the  Passover  solem- 
nity, were  well  calculated  to  keep  them  in  memory  of  the  deliverances 
God  had  wrought  for  them  in  days  of  yore,  as  well  as  of  the  peculiar 
covenant  which  bound  them  to  the  one  true  and  living  God ;  yet 
they  rebelled  under  the  most  aggravating  circumstances  imaginable. 
The  altars  of  Jehovah  were  deserted,  and  idolaters  arose  over  all  the 
holy  land.  In  looking  o^er  the  history  of  the  Jewish  and  Israelitish 
kings,  one  is  perfectly  surprised  at  the  constant  proneness  to  abandon 
Jehovah  for  Baal.     If  there  arises  now  and  then  one  or  two  good 


A  WARNING   TO   BACKSLIDERS.  87 

kings,  of  whom  it  is  written,  "  and  he  did  that  which  was  right  in  the 
sight  of  the  Lord,"  as  a  general  thing  their  successors  are  very  apt 
to  be  recorded  as  doing  "  that  which  was  evil  in  the  sight  of  the 
Lord."  Why  is  all  this  ?  Is  there  something  in  royalty  and  kings 
and  courts  utterly  antagonistic  to  the  spiritual  worship  of  God  ?  One 
would  be  tempted  to  think  so;  and  yet  Hezekiah  and  Josiah  would 
seem  to  stand  out  as  glorious  exceptions  to  the  rule.  Be  this  as  it 
may,  one  thing  is  sure  :  the  Israelitish  kings  were  generally  the  lead- 
ers of  idolatrous  worship.  Baal  was  too  often  the  god  of  the  court, 
and  the  obsequious  people  were  too  obedient  to  repudiate  the  religion 
of  their  rulers.  Often,  when  their  rebellions  became  perfectly  out- 
rageous, God  scourged  them  by  His  judgments.  The  sword  of  the 
uncircumcised,  and  the  chains  of  a  bitter  captivity,  taught  them  that 
Jehovah  rules  in  heaven,  and  among  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth;  and 
they  were  brought  to  their  prayers  and  confessions.  •  Then  they  were 
ready  to  say,  "  What  have  we  to  do  any  more  with  idols  ?  "  They 
humbled  themselves,  and  God  heard  them,  and  had  mercy  on  them. 
They  sought  again  the  forsaken  altars  of  Jehovah,  and  rendered  Him 
the  calves  of  their  lips.  But  too  often  this  amendment  was  but  tem- 
porary, and  they  wandered  again  in  forbidden  paths.  We  often 
wonder  at  this  tendency  to  backsliding,  which  the  history  of  God's 
ancient  people  records ;  but  is  not  human  nature  the  same  in  Jew 
and  Gentile  ?  And  does  not  the  history  of  the  Christian  church,  both 
past  and  present,  present  just  the  same  sort  of  pictur6  with  the  his- 
tory of  God's  ancient  people  ?  Is  it  not  true  of  the  Christian  church 
in  most  places,  that  her  members — at  least  many  of  them — are  bent 
to  backsliding  ? 

Man  is  an  alien  from  God.  His  nature  is  earthly,  and  sensual, 
and  devilish — prone  to  evil,  and  utterly  disinclined  to  good.  The 
Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God  proclaims  to  him  peace  and  pardon, 
through  the  atonement  and  mediation  of  the  Son  of  God.  The 
repentant  sinner,  by  a  living,  active  faith,  appropriates  Christ  in  all 
his  offices — as  God  manifest  in  the  flesh  :  Immanuel,  God  with  us; 
as  being  here  among  us,  enduring  pain,  hunger,  thirst,  temptation ; 
enduring  insult,  slander,  and  contempt ;  and  at  length  laying  down 
His  life  for  us ;  as  descending  into  the  grave ;  as  rising  from  the 
tomb — thus  triumphing  over  death  and  the  grave,  to  make  sure  our 
salvation ;  as  taking  the  mediatorial  throne,  and  occupying  it  as  our 
ever-living  and  interceding  High  Priest,  who  remembers  us,  knows 


88  A   WARNING  TO   BACKSLIDERS. 

us  and  our  circumstances,  thoroughly  sympathizes  with  us,  and  prays 
for  us.  This  faith  brings  us  to  the  mercy  seat — enables  us  to  cast 
all  upon  the  power,  love,  and  faithfulness  of  God ;  and  the  Holy 
Ghost  comes  down  from  the  Father  and  the  Son  into  our  hearts,  to 
enlighten  us  when  we  are  dark,  to  encourage  and  strenghen  us  when 
we  are  like  to  faint  and  when  we  are  discouraged,  and  to  whisper  to 
our  trembling  hearts  the  words  of  peace  and  pardon :  "  Thy  faith 
hath  saved  thee ;  go  in  peace,  and  sin  no  more."  "  Old  things  are 
now  passed  away ;  behold,  all  things  are  become  new."  New  hopes, 
new  fears,  new  objects,  and  new  ends,  now  govern  his  life;  he  has 
now  daily  communion  with  God,  and  looks  to  God  and  heaven  aa 
the  ultimate  end  and  home  of  his  redeemed  and  forgiven  spirit. 
Now,  this  man's  principles  of  action — the  objects  of  his  faith  and 
hope — all  belong  to  eternity.  He  endures  as  seeing  Him  who  ia 
invisible.  He  walks  by  faith,  not  by  sight.  He  looks  from  tempo- 
ral things  which  are  seen,  to  those  eternal  things  which  are.  not 
seen — ^which  are  rendered  visible,  tangible,  and  as  it  were  substan- 
tial, by  the  glorious  revealments  of  faith  in  God's  character  and  his 
promises.  The  Christian  must  have  daily  communion  with  God;  his 
soul  must  thus  be  fed  with  this  heavenly  manna ;  it  must  be  kept 
daily  and  hourly  in  spiritual  contact  with  those  glorious  verities,  or 
else  the  flame  of  piety  will  die  out  of  the  heart;  confidence  in  Gbd 
^ill  be  lost;  that  affectionate,  simple,  childlike  faith  and  trust  in 
God,  and  that  earnest  and  devoted  love  for  Him,  will .  expire,  and 
the  man  will  backslide.  Now,  no  matter  how  soundly  men  may  be 
converted  to  God,  yet  while  they  are  here,  and  in  a  state  of  proba- 
tion, they  will  be  assailed  by  temptation,  and  may  yield  to  the  tempt- 
ation, and  backslide.  This  their  great  adversary  knows,  and  conse- 
quently uses  all  his  arts  to  induce  them  to  relax  in  their  zeal  and  in 
their  watchfulness.  He  assails  their  confidence  in  God,  for  this  is 
the  vital  point.  He  knows  that  this  humble,  grateful,  affectionate 
trust  in  God  is  the  only  strong  link  which  binds  the  soul  to  God.  It 
is  because  of  this  confidence  in  Him  as  our  friend  and  father,  that  we 
love  God.  We  love  Him  because  we  have  the  witness  that  He  first 
loved  us — yea,  that  He  laves  us  still ;  and  therefore  our  hearts  re- 
spond with  stroDc;  and  ardent  expressions  of  love  and  heart  devotion 
to  Him. 

It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  Satan  should  attempt,  by  every 
possible  assault  and  all  possible  sophistry,  to  weaken  and  destroy 


A  WARNING  TO   BACKSLIDERS.  89 

,  this  coufidencc,  for  he  knows  that  if  he  ti'iumphs  here,  the  day  is 
gained.     Now,  we  are  not  to  suppose  that  the  tempter  approaches 
every  cue  in  the  same  manner.     By  no  means.     He  has  lived  and 
tempted  men  for  so  many  thousand  years  to  but  little  purpose^  if  he 
has  not  learned  that  all  are  not  approached  successfully  in  the  same 
way.     He  well  understands  the  temperament  and  the  peculiar  weak- 
nesses of  all  whom  he  approaches,  and  is  pretty  sure  to  adapt  his 
temptation  so  as  to  meet  these  prevailing  tendencies.    In  the  infancy 
of  our  experience,  perhaps  we  are  assailed  with  questionings  as  to 
the  genuineness  of  our  conversions;  and  this  may  be  more  especially 
the   case  if  our  experience   or   conversion  was  attended  with  no 
remarkable  or  overwhelming  manifestations  of  the  power  and  glory 
of  God,  such  as  others  around  us  have  experienced.     We  measure 
ourselves  by  others,  and  that  very  unwisely  too ;  for  it  is  always  un- 
safe to  lay  much  stress  on  the  mere  accidents  of  conversion,  as  it  is 
indeed  unsafe  to  make  the  professions  of  others  the  standard  of  our 
Chl-istian  experience  at  any  time,  and  especially  at  the  commence- 
ment of  our  course.     Or  it  may  be  that  the  young  convert  was  in 
the  beginning  happy  almost  to  ecstasy — perhaps  for  several  days  all 
was  transport — but  those  hours  have  passed  away;  they  no  longer 
seem  to  walk  on  Pisgah's  top,  and  they  are  assailed  with  doubts  as 
to  whether  all  was  not  a  mistake;  and  if  so,  the  question  often  arises, 
May  not  this  whole  matter  of  Christian  experience  be  a  mistake — a 
mere  dream  of  enthusiasm  ?  And  about  this  time  the  young  Christian 
unfortunately  falls  into  the  company  of  some  who  have  only  the  form 
of  religion,  and  know  nothing  of  its  power — who  are  what  is  called 
decent,  respectable  members  of  the  church ;  whose  great  dread  is  lest 
they  should  be  righteous  overmuch,  and  thereby  offend  the  gay  and 
thoughtless  world  around  them,  but  who  have  no  change  of  heart,  no 
spiritual  Christianity.     The  pardon  of  sin,  and  the  witness  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  they  have  never  experienced — perhaps  have  never  even 
sought — and  of  course  they  know  nothing  of  its  power  and  precious- 
ness,  its  peace  and  its  joy.     But,  making  their  own  experience  the 
sole  standared  of  all  possible  Christian  experience,  they  repudiate  as 
impossible  any  higher  degree  or  more  spiritual  experience  than  their 
own.     They  insensibly  yet  surely  lead  the  troubled  heart  to  feed  in 
pastures  that  are  not  of  God's  appointing.     They  are  so  charmed 
with  the  outside  of  the  stones  of  the  Christian  temple,  that  they  can 
scarcely  think  or  talk  of  anything  else  than  its  beautiful  exterior,  its 


90  A  WAP.NING   TO   BACKSLIDERS. 

merely  temporary  scaffolding,  wliicli  is  soon  to  fall  or  be  removed. 
This  class  of  persons  talk  largely  of  the  chiwch,  its  forms,  and  all 
that;  but  tbe  Kingdom  of  God  is  not  within  them.  They  have  been 
so  taken  up  with  the  outside  of  the  temple,  that  they  have  had  neither 
heart  nor  eye  for  the  sublime  revelations  of  its  pure  and  glorious 
interior ;  and  now  they  have  nothing  to  say  except  to  deny  the  ex- 
istence of  any  such  glory. 

The  consequence  of  such  association  will  soon  be  manifest  in  the 
altered  tone  of  the  young  Christian's  conversation..  It  will,  become 
vapid  and  dull,  not  savoring  of  the  things  which  are  Christ's,  but 
those  that  be  of  the  world.  Instead  of  the  happy  and  simple 
childlike  and  loving  confidence  of  their  early  espousals  to  God,  we 
have  the  language  of  chilling  doubt,  if  not  of  absolute  unbelief. 
Private  prayer  is  neglected,  or  is  performed  without  interest.  No 
sweet  visitations  of  peace  and  joy  gladden  the  heart.  At  those  sea- 
sons of  communion  with  God,  once  so  hallowed  and  joyous,  now  God 
meets  them  not  as  aforetimes.  For  a  while  it  may  be  that  the  knees 
bend  and  the  lips  move  almost  mechanically  in  prayer,  and  a  sort  of 
dread  of  God  and  eternal  things  may  for  a  while  in  some  sort  whip 
them  up  to  the  discharge  of  outward  duty,  but  this  state  of  things 
will  not  likely  continue  long.  It  will  be  apt  soon  to  pass  away,  or 
only  become  spasmodic  in  its  influence;  and  the  soul,  finding  no  joy 
and  peace,  no  comfort,  no  spiritual  food,  in  the  mere  routine  dis- 
charge of  duty,  is  very  apt  to  turn  again  to  those  sensual  pleasures 
so  lately  abandoned.  And  now  these  same  counsellors,  whose  influ- 
ence has  begun  their  ruin,  talk  to  them  of  innocent  amuse:ments : 
"Dancing  is  really  healthful ;  the  theatre  is  a  fine  school  for  morals; 
much  is  to  be  gained  by  attending  both.  Many  respectable  members 
of  the  church  go  there  with  their  children ;  would  they  be  found 
there  if  it  were  wrong  ?  .The  enlightened  and  liberal  attend  such 
places,  and  only  bigots  condemn  them."  And  thus  the  poor  God- 
forsaking  soul  is  enticed  to  take  another  downward  step.  And  now 
fashionable  parties,  balls,  theatres,  and  operas,  appropriate  the  hours 
which  were  once  consecrated  to  sacred  meditation,  godly  reading, 
■  and  private  communion  with  God.  These  last  are  now  given  up, 
because  there  is  neither  time  nor  heart  for  any  such  service. 

But  it  is  not  only  is  the  earlier  stages  of  experience  that  Chris- 
tians are  exposed  to  great  danger  from  the  influence  of  wrong  associ- 
ations.    This  danger  besets  us  through  all  our  journey.     Many  a 


A  WARNING   TO   BACKSLIDERS.  91 

'  gray-headed  Christian  backslides  through  the  influence  of  his  associ- 
ates ;  and  in  reference  to  this  danger,  as  well  as  to  every  other,  we 
shall  do  well  to  take  heed  and  watch  and  pray,  and  that  in  a  very 
emphatic  sense.  Your  only  safety  in  this  matter  is  to  take  heed  of 
your  associates.  You  can  control  the  choice  of  your  companions ; 
but  having  once  chosen  them,  you  have  no  power  to  say  how  far 
your  head  or  heart  may  be  affected  by  their  conversation.  That  is 
beyond  your  control.  It  grows  necessarily  out  of  the  relations 
which,  for  the  time,  you  voluntarily  sustain  to  each  other.  The 
very  laws  of  your  nature  settle  it.  Nor  let  it  be  supposed  that  you 
are  only  in  danger  from  the  avowedly  profane  and  ungodly.  Asso- 
ciation with  those  who  are  only  negatively  good  will  do  you  much 
injury.  It  is  enough  if  they  exclude  God  from  their  conversation. 
If  they  are  simply  living  without  God,  and  of  course  without  hope  in 
God,  all  such  associations  must  certainly  harm  you.  If  your  chosen 
companions  are  the  men  whose  talk  is  mainly  of  lands  and  crops  and 
wealth,  take  heed  how  you  step — you  are  on  slippery  ground ;  for 
that  which  constitutes  the  burden  of  your  talk  will  soon  occupy  the 
chief  place  in  your  heart. 

But  there  is  yet  another  class  of  companionships  which  are  fre- 
quently the  cause  of  backsliding.  I  mean  improper  marriages,  where 
a  young  man  of  piety  marries  an  irreligious  woman,  or,  what  is  prob- 
ably as  much  to  be  regretted,  a  pious  woman  marries  an  ungodly 
man.  These  ill-assorted  marriages  have  been  the  fruitful  source  of 
backslidings  in  every  age  of  the  church,  from  the  time  when,  in  the 
early  days,  the  sous  of  God  took  them  wives  of  the  daughters  of  men, 
till  this  day.  It  has  always  been  a  dangerous  experiment,  whether 
in  the  Patriarchal,  Prophetic,  or  Christian  dispensation,  and  must 
continue  to  be  so.  Indeed,  how  can  it  be  otherwise  ?  How  can  two 
walk  comfortably  together,  unless  they  be  agreed  in  reference  to  that 
which  is  the  chief  interest  of  life  ?  I  think  it  will  be  found  that  one 
of  two  things  will  be  pretty  sure  to  take  place ;  the  influence  of  one 
or  the  other  of  the  parties  will  predominate,  and  the  scale  will  turn 
for  hell  or  heaven,  according  to  the  preponderating  influence.  True, 
the  Christian  may  carry  the  day ;  but  when  we  consider  how  much 
of  fallen  humanity  with  satanic  influence  is  engaged  on  the  side  of 
evil,  the  contest  must  be  regarded  as  a  very  unequal  one.  There- 
fore, let  me  just  deliver  one  word  of  caution  :  take  heed,  0  Christian 
man  or  woman,  with  whom  you  link  your  destiny  for  life.     Marry 


92  A  WARUING   TO  BACKSLIDERS. 

only  in  the  Lord;  for  be  assured  that,  in  going  to  heaven,  yon  will 
need  all  the  help  you  can  get.  Therefore,  seek  a  wife  or  husband 
who  will  be  a  helper  to  you  in  your  Christian  course. 

There  is  danger,  too,  in  the  doctrines  which  may  sometimes  greet 
your  ears.  Whatever  doctrine  obscures  the  glory  and  holiness  and 
love  of  the  Divine  character,  hear  it  not.  Avoid  all  Laodicean  doc- 
trines. Every  one  which  does  not  tend  to  keep  constantly  alive  in 
your  heart  an  earnest  desire  for  holiness  of  spirit  and  life,  and  an  - 
undying  effort  to  obtain  it  and  live  for  it,  reject  at- once,  no  matter 
how  specious  and  eloquent  the  plea  which  is  made  in  its  behalf  Let 
your  motto  always  be,  "  The  truth  which  is  according  to  godliness,"  . 
and  "  the  faith  which  works  by  love,  and  purifies  the  heart."  With 
these  truths  always  before  you,  you  will  be  apt  to  go  right.  Yet  one 
more  caution,  and  on  this  point  I  cease.  Kemember  that  books  are 
often  the  most  influential  companions;  therefore,  take  prayerful  heed  ' 
to  your  dumb  library  companions.  Wrapped  up  in  the  pages  around 
you,  there  maybe  much  truth  to  save,  or  much  error  to  destroy; 
therefore,  be  careful.  Remember,  many  a  man  has  been  corrupted 
by  a  single  book. 

Some  men  grow  rich;  their  business  prospers,  and  wealth  pours  in 
upon  them  from  almost  every  quarter.  The  man's  head  and  heart 
are  busy;  cares  multiply  in  proportion  as  wealth  increases,  and,  iii 
the  same  ratio,  prayers  decrease  both  in  frequency  and  earnestness. 
One  would  think,  that  as  his  means  increased,  so  in  proportion  would 
his  liberality ;  but  it  is  not  so.  He  gives  now  more  grudgingly,  and 
on  a  more  niggardly  scale  than  formerly,  when  his  means  were  limited. 
Then  he  gave  according  to  his  ability,  and  gave  cheerfully,  and  the 
giving  did  him  good.  His  benefactions  now  are  small.  He  gives 
with  an  ill  grace,  and  regards  all  he  thus  gives  as  a  shameful  waste, 
the  bestowment  of  which  causes  him  many  a  heart  groan. ,  Of  course, 
this  man  is  a  backslider  already.  He  is  even  now  a  worshipper  at  the 
shrine  of  Mammon. 

Most  men  who  backslide  do  so  gradually.  Pergonal  ease  and  self- 
indulgence  lead  them  to  neglect  the  private  or  the  social  or  domestic 
'  duties  of  religion.  The  pleasures  of  sense  steal  over  all  the  powers 
of  the  spirit,  and  enervate  and  paralyze  all  its  energies.  Hence,  the 
works  of  faith  and  th6  labor  of  love  become  onerous,  and  are  aban- 
doned. The  world's  opiates  are  swallowed  freely,  and  the  man  sinks 
into  a  sleep,  profound  and  deadly,  from  which  he  too  frequently 


A  WARNING  TO   BACKSLIDERS.  93 

never  wakes  till  the  hour  when  his  waking  will  do  him  no  good.  It 
may  indeed  sometimes  be  the  case  that  one  is  suddenly  and  furiously 
assailed  by  some  powerful  temptation,  to  which,  unfortunately,  he 
yields.  Now  he  has  sinned,  openly  and  notoriously  sinned,  and  his 
arch  enemy  whispers,  "It  is  all  over  with  you;  God  has  cast  you  oflF; 
return  to  your  former  pleasures."  The  Good  Spirit  whispers,  "  Re- 
turn to  thy  God ;  repent  of  thy  backsliding,  and  the  Lord  will  heal 
thee."  But  the  voice  of  the  tempter  is  most  apt  to  prevail,  especially 
if  the  delinquent  be  improperly  neglected  or  managed  by  the  pastor, 
or  the  church,  or  by  surrounding  friends.  The  backslider,  at  this 
stage  of  his  history,  requires  to  be  managed  with  a  great  deal  of  pru- 
dence, firmness,  and  love.  Many  of  this  class  of  persons  go  finally 
back  into  the  world,  because  of  deficiency  at  this  point.  Alas  for  the 
poor  sinner,  if  his  pastor  forgets  the  work  of  a  pastor — if  he  knows 
not  his  people,  or  has  shown  them  so  little  attention  as  that  they  feel 
that  he  is  a  stranger  to  them,  so  that  they  cannot  make  free  to  ap- 
proach him  !  Sometimes  it  may  be  that  the  wanderer  is  lost  because 
of  the  want  of  tenderness,  sympathy,  and  faithfulness,  on  the  part  of 
the  church.  One  in  such  circumstances  requires  to  be  treated  with 
a  great  deal  of  faithfulness.  He  must  be  told  of  his  wrong  in  all  its 
turpitude.  It  will  do  no  good  to  make  him  think  lightly  of  his  sin. 
Let  him  see  that  he  has  sinned  against  God  grievously,  and  that 
there  is  no  apology  or  excuse  for  his  sin.  But  while  all  this  plain- 
ness is  shown  him,  remember  he  is  a  brother ;  and  if  indeed  he  be  a 
brother  fallen  into  the  ditch,  you  must  lay  hold  of  him,  and  never 
rest  till  he  is  redeemed  from  his  fall,  and  brought  back  to  the  favor 
of  God.  Woe,  woe  to  the  backslider !  for  he  is  treading  a  thorny 
road.  The  contrast  of  the  past  with  the  present  will  make  him 
wretched :  "  Oh !  that  it  were  with  me  as  in  days  past,  when  the 
candle  of  the  Lord  shone  upon  me !  Then  I  was  peaceful,  and  all 
was  cheerfulness  and  joy  within.  The  Sabbath  and  the  sanctuai'y  of 
God  were  hallowed  by  the  blessings  and  presence  of  my  father,  God. 
Then  my  closet  and  my  family  altar  invited  me  to  a  cheerful  and 
joyful  off'ering  of  myself  and  my  all  to  God,  who  deigned  to  meet  me 
there,  and  assure  me  of  His  acceptance  of  my  sacrifice.  Then  He  led 
me  in  green  pastures,  and  caused  me  to  rest  beside  the  sweet  streams 
that  flow  through  the  garden  of  God.  Then  I  enjoyed,  daily,  sweet 
peace  and  communion  with  God.  Wherever  I  went,  I  knew  that  the 
great  Shepherd  of  Israel,  who  neither  slumbers  nor  sleeps,  was  my 


94  A  WARNINa  TO   BACKSLIDERS. 

cuide  and  protector.  But,  alas !  those  days  are  past;  and  now  God 
frowns  on  me.  I  cannot  approach  Him.  When  I  would  think  of  Him 
as  my  father  and  friend,  I  feel  that  guilt  repels  me.  I  cannot  pray  with 
my  wife  and  children ;  I  feel  that  they  have  no  confidence  in  me.  If 
I  go  to  the  house  of  God,  and  hear  His  Word  preached— that  Word 
on  which  my  soul  used  once  to  feed— all  is  dark,  and  brings  to  me 
nothing  but  messages  of  wrath  and  despair.  My  old  Christian 
friends  shun  me ;  and  the  ungodly,  with  whom  I  am  now  wont  to  as- ' 
sociate,  I  feel  that,  vile  as  they  may  be,  they  do  no^  respect  me.  All 
around  me  is  dark,  whenever  I  reflect.  A  hell  within-  me,  and  a 
still  worse  and  fearfully  dreaded  hell  before  me  !  Methinks  I  would 
fain  return  to  my  father's  house ;  but  how  can  I  ?  My  heart  is  hard. 
No  broken  heart,  no  contrite  spirit,  can  I  present  to  God.  No  sigh 
of  penitence  stirs  my  soul ;  no  tear  of  godly  sorrow  dims  my  eye. 
And  then  I  feel  that  I  have  hindered  others  from  entering  on  the 
paths  of  piety,  or  my  example  has  caused  them  to  turn  away  from 
the  ways  of  God.  Perhaps  my  wife  has  been  caused  to  stumble,  or 
my  children  have  been  hindered,  and  it  may  be  I  shall  be  the  means 
of  their  damnation.  Oh !  Jehovah — the  pure,  the  terrible  God — 
could  I  only  hope  for  mercy  from  thee !  But  wilt  thou,  canst 
thou,  pity  and  forgive  a  poor  miserable  ofi"cast  from  God,  whose 
backslidings  have  been  manifold  and  great  ?  If  a  fellow  creature 
had  wronged  me  greatly  and  oft  as  I  haVe  wronged  thee,  sure  I  am 
I  should  not  forgive  him." 

And  yet,  0  backslider,  hear  the  word  of  the  Lord.  He  says  He 
will  heal  your  backsliding,  and  love  you  freely.  He  says,  "  Take 
with  you  words,  and  return  unto  the  Lord  5  "  and  He  hath  promised 
to  heal  you.  Hear,  ye  backsliding  wanderers  from  God  !  See  how 
unwilling  God  is  to  give  you  up  to  utter  ruin.  Hark  how  He  ex- 
postulates with  you  :  <'  How  shall  I  give  thee  up,  Ephraim?  *  *  * 
How  shall  I  make  thee  as  Admah  ?  How  shall  I  set  thee  as  Zeboim  ? 
Mine  heart  is  turned  within  me ;  My  repentings  are  kindled  together. 
I  will  not  execute  the  fierceness  of  Mine  anger ;  I  will  not  return  to 
destroy  Ephraim."  And  why  is  all  this  pity  and  long-sufi'ering  pa- 
tience in  the  midst  of  such  unprovoked  and  daring  rebellions,  such 
black  and  damning  ingratitude  ?  Hear  it,  O  sinner !  It  is  because 
He  is  God,  and  not  nlan.  So  the  very  argument  which  perhaps  at 
first  led  thee  to  despair,  God  presents  as  an  incentive  to  repent  and 
return  to  God,  with  a  strong  persuasion — yea,  with  an  abiding  and 


A  WARNING   TO   BACKSLIDERS.  95 

unfaltering,  confidence — that  God  will  meet  you  in  mercy,  and  forgive 
you,  and  heal  your  backslidings,  and  bring  you  again  into  His  family, 
and  make  you  again  His  happy  sons  and  daughters.  Then,  0  back- 
slider !  deky  no  longer.  Come  home  at  once  to  the  Shepherd  and 
Bishop  of  your  souls ;  come,  while  God  calls ;  come,  while  Jesus 
pleads  with  you,  and  entreats  you  to  return  to  His  fold ;  come,  while 
the  Holy  Ghost  warns,  and,  with  untiring  and  unceasing  patience, 
invites  you  to  come  home  to  the  bosom  of  a  forgiving  Father !  What 
joy  would  your  return  enkindle  among  the  angels  of  God  in  heaven; 
and  oh !  what  pleasure  to  parents,  husband,  wife,  or  children,  on 
earth  !  Wait  not,  then,  till  a  more  convenient  season.  Now  is  the 
accepted  time,  and  now  is  the  day  of  salvation.  Now — to-day — re- 
solve to  arise  and  go  to  your  Father.  Postponement  but  increases 
the  difficulty.  Every  moment  that  you  remain  in  your  backslidden 
state  but  increases  the  power  of  evil  over  you,  and  binds  you  more 
strongly  with  the  chains  of  habit.  Awake,  and  act  at  once  !  There 
is  no  safety  in  your  purpose  of  gradual  improvement. 

Let  me  warn  you,  my  Christian  friend,  to  watch  vigilantly  against 
the  entrance  of  prejudice  into  your  heart.  A  very  small  matter  may 
sometimes  give  it  entrance,  and,  once  entered,  it  poisons  the  whole 
fountain  of  thought  and  feeling  within  you.  It  disorders  the  soul's 
vision,  and  gives  a  wrong  aspect  to  everything  on  which  we  gaze. 
If  you  expect  to  obtain  forgiveness,  you  must  exercise  it  towards 
others ;  otherwise,  the  petition  in  the  Lord's  prayer,  "  Forgive  me 
as  I  forgive,"  invokes  a  fearful  curse  upon  thee.  Oh !  beware  of 
prejudice  !  If  it  hath  found  a  lodgment  in  thy  heart,  never  rest  till 
it  is  driven  from  thy  bosom.  Do  not  dare  to  sleep  with  it  rankling 
in  thy  heart,  lest  there  be  an  awakening  in  a  world  where  mercy  and 
pardon  are  unknown.  Many — oh,  how  many ! — begin  their  back- 
slidings there.  Cultivate  kindly  feelings  for  all ;  pray  for  all ;  do 
good  to  all ;  so  shalt  thou  prosper. 

One  more  warning,  and  that  closes  these  warnings.  Thousands 
perish  from  the  home  and  family  of  God,  because  they  are  at  ease  in 
Zion.  They  wish  to  steal  softly  and  quietly  to  heaven,  with  as  few 
crosses  as  possible,  and  as  little  work.  They  are  unwilling  to  work 
for  God ;  hence  they  are  always  full  of  excuses  or  apologies  for  neg- 
lecting their  duties.  Sometimes  they  plead  want  of  talent,  want  of 
influence,  their  great  diffidence;  but  He  who  searches  the  heart 
knows  that  all  these  are  hollow  and  insincere — mere  subterfuges  for 


96  A  WARNING  TO   BACKSLIDERS. 

neglecting  duty  to  God  or  our  fellows.  But  let  no  man  deceive  him- 
self. God  is  not  mocked.  You  must  be  willing  to  do  all  your  duty, 
or  you  will  backslide,  as  sure  as  you  live.  No ;  your  only  safety  is 
in  a  prompt  and  earnest  and  thorough  casting  all  at  the  feet  of  your 
Redeemer.  Jesus  looks  upon  you,  backslider,  as  He  did  on  back- 
slidden Peter.  Oh,  go  out,  like  Peter,  and  weep  bitterly.  But  do 
you  say,  '' I  have  no  feeling  on  the  subject  of  salvation;  how  can  I 
attempt  a  return  to  the  Good  and  Merciful  ?  "  For  that  reason,  thou 
shouldst  without  delay  begin  thy  return  to  God.  Thy  hardness  will 
increase,  the  longer  thy  return  is  delayed.  The  continuance  of  thy 
heart  and  lip  and  life  rebellions  has  no  tendency  to  soften  the  heart,  or 
cause  the  outgushing  of  deep  and  honest  and  hearty  repentance.  Come, 
then,  at  once.  If  you  feel,  come ;  and  if  your  heart  is  as  hard  as  the 
nether  millstone,  come,  under  the  convictions  of  judgment  and  un- 
derstanding. The  command,  the  invitation  of  God  to  you,  is,  "  Re- 
turn; take  with  you  words  of  confession,  and  words  of  pleading  inter- 
cession. Break  off  from  thy  sins,  and  from  thy  ungodly  associations." 
Give  them  up,  though  pleasant  and  dear  to  you  as  a  right  hand  or  a 
right  eye.  Your  associates  must  to  a  great  extent  be  changed,  or  all 
is  lost.  Return  at  once  to  .the  church  of  God.  Take  the  precious 
Bible  as  your  daily  companion ;  restore  again  your  long-neglected 
family  altar,  and  let  prayer — ardent,  earnest,  and  importunate — agairf 
ascend  to  God ;  resume  the  discharge  of  every  duty ;  and,  as  it  may 
be  that  you  have  lost  many  of  the  best  years  of  your  life,  now  that 
your  eyes  are  once  more  open,  try  as  far  as  possible  to  make  up  lost 
time.  Make  the  effort  honestly  and  perseveringly,  and  you  will 
surely  succeed ;  God's  word  of  promise  insures  you  success. 

The  history  of  returning  backsliders  in  every  age  of  the  church  is 
full  of  instruction.  Witness  the  case  of  poor  apostate  Peter.  How 
grievously  did  he  apostatize !  And  yet  Jesus  gave  him,  not  up  to 
perish.  Think  of  that  heart-breaking  look  his  Lord  gave  him — and 
he  has  given  thee  njany  such ;  and  now,  poor  alien  from  peace  and 
joy  and  holiness  and  God,  follow  Peter's  weeping  example.  Go  out, 
weep,  repent,  turn  away  from  thy  sins,  and  Jesus  will  cast  another 
look — even  one  of  pity,  of  tenderness — and  His  words  to  thee  will 
be  words  of  forgiveness.  He  will  say  to  thee;  "  Be  whole  of  this  thy 
leprosy.  Go  in  peace,' but  sin  no  more,  lest  a  worse  thing  come  upon 
thee."  Consecrate  thyself  anew  to  God.  Go,  work  with  all  thy 
might  to  undo  the  mischief  which  thy  backslidings  have  inflicted 


A  WARNING   TO   BACKSLIDERS.  97 

upon  society.  Go,  weep  over  tliose  whom  thou  didst  lead  astray, 
aud  never  rest  till  thou  hast  brought  them  back  into  the  good  ways 
of  the  Lord.  And  do  thou  watch  and  pray  more  vigilantly  and 
earnestly  than  ever,  lest  thou  again  be  led  astray.  Let  thy  past  ex- 
perience be  a  warning  to  thee ;  and  may  God  so  preserve  and  keep 
theC;  that  thou  fall  not  into  sin  any  more ! 


V 


/$  i 


CHEIST  THE  WAi,  iiiii.  TRUTH,  Alp)  THE  LIFE. 

antothe  P&ther 
.le,  are  of 


-jf  Jesqfl, 


and  t 


^e  of  JesiRiB 


.  death  ot  si: 

"-  -••  that  wav  ;   .  •.  ^  >■  >■■  .  ■  '<;• 

i!;    .  .;  ciiiims.     Bu  imd  a  right  to 

vazko  them.     By  many  mighty  miracles,  and,  above  ali,  •  by  rising 
from  the  dead  on  the  third  day  after  His  crucifixion,  He  proved 
beyond  a  doubt  the  Divinity  of  His  mission,  the  truth  of  His  testi- 
mony, and  the  validity  of  all  His  j 
hifve  no  riisgivings  while  He  start 

/  ;  of  the  text.     The  decla  >  that  we  may 

chief  concern  should ';  tly  iiudersi 

sUy  apply  and  improve  -;o  doing  ■ 

be  ih.K-.  prinLiipal  obj'-ct  of  this  discourtr  does  tho  Ijord 

I    tcfK-hes. 


100        CHRIST   THE  WAY,   THE  TRUTH,   AND  THE  LIFE. 

He  has  shown  us  in  His  teachings,  and  shown  us  clearly,  as  no  other 
teacher  ever  did,  what  principles  we  must  embrace,  what  feelings  we 
must  cultivate,  what  objects  we  must  pursue,  and  what  kind  of  a  life 
we  must  lead,  if  we  would  reach  the  house  of  His  Father  and  the 
home  of  the  blessed.  Professions  without  piety,  forms  of  religion 
without  the  substance,  adhering  to  externals  and  neglecting  the 
heart,  cleaving  to  our  own  merits  instead  of  trusting  in  Him,  tithing 
mint,  anise,  and  cummin,  and  omitting  judgment,  mercy,  and  faith — 
this  He  has  told  us  is  the  way  to  perdition,  but  not  to  salvation;  the 
way  to  hell,  but  not  to  heaven.  While,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
washing  of  regeneration  and  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  repentance 
towards  God  and  faith  in  Himself  as  the  Saviour,  purity  of  heart  and 
a  life  bearing  the  impress  of  love  to  God  and  our  neighbor — these.  He 
has  told  us,  are  the  preparation  we  must  seek,  if  we  would  sit  down 
with  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in  the  kingdom  of  glory.  This 
is  plain  and  faithful  instruction.  No  one  need  misunderstand  it.  It 
is  level  to  the  capacity  of  a  child.  And  because  He  has  so  spoken, 
we  say  He  is  the  way  to  heaven  by  His  doctrine.  He  teaches  men 
the  true  way,  as  opposed  to  the  false  and  misleading  paths  that  would 
conduct  them  down  to  ruin. 

2.  Secondly — Jesus  is  the  way  to  heaven  by  His  death.  There 
were  legal  obstacles  in  the  way  of  our  return  to  our  Father's  face  and 
favor.  We  had  offended  His  infinite  majesty;  we  had  incurred  His 
infinite  displeasure.  We  had  broken  that  law  which  is  holy,  and 
just,  and  good.  We  were  exposed  to  its  awful  penalty;  and  that 
penalty  inflicted  in  its  fullness  would  have  sunk  us  to  the  world  of 
despair,  and  held  us  there  forever.  What,  then,  was  done  for  our 
rescue  ?  Jesus  interposed  for  us.  He  said,  Deliver  them  from  going 
down  to  the  pit,  for  I  have  found  a  ransom.  And  how  did  He  ran- 
.som  us?  He  gave  Himself  for  us.  Taking  our  nature  into  personal 
union  with  His  Divinity,  He  became  our  substitute  and  surety.  He 
stood  in  our  place.  He  assumed  our  legal  liabilities.  He  obeyed 
the  precepts  of  the  law  in  our  stead.  He  endured  the  penalty  of 
the  law  in  our  stead.  Yes,  He  obeyed,  and  He  suffered— obeyed 
and  suffered  as  the  accepted  substitute  of  sinners,  till  the  violated 
law  was  honored,  the  claims  of  justice  were  met,  and  God,  for  His 
Bake,  without  tarnishing'  any  perfection  of  His  character  or  compro- 
mising any  principle  of  His  government,  could  offer  us  terms  of  par- 
don and  make  us  the  heirs  of  glory.    It  was  thus,  my  hearers,  that 


CHRIST   THE   WAY,   THE   TRUTH,   AND   THE  LIFE.        101 

the  mighty  barriers  were  removed  which  prevented  our  return  to 
happiness  and  God.  That  removal  was  the  price  of  blood.  It  cost 
the  humiliation,  the  obedience,  the  agony,  and  the  ignominious  death 
of  Him,  who,  though  He  was  God's  equal,  consented  to  become  our 
brother;  nay,  more — consented  to  become  "a  man  of  sorrows  and 
acquainted  with  grief."  It  is  with  reference  to  all  this  that  He  says 
to  us  to-day,  "  I  am  the  way."  He  means,  not  only  that  He  has 
shown  us  the  way  to  heaven  by  His  teachings,  but  that  He  has  o_pencd 
it  hy  His  death. 

3.  Again — Jesus  is  the  way  to  heaven  by  His  example.  It  is  true, 
we  need  preceptive  instruction  to  give  us  light,  and  we  need  the  effi- 
cacy of  a  sin-atoning  sacrifice  to  give  us  access  to  God ;  but  we  need 
more  than  these :  we  need  to  have  before  us  the  life  of  One,  who,  in 
our  nature,  without  defilement  or  deviation,  has  trod  the  rugged 
pathway  to  heaven,  and  in  so  doing  has  gone  before  us,  and  shown 
our  feet  the  way.  This  priceless  boon  we  have.  The  life  of  the 
incarnate  Son  of  God  is  a  model  life,  beautiful,  stainless,  perfect, 
which  every  candidate  for  bliss  within  the  vail  is  required  to  study 
and  to  imitate.  By  sojourning  in  this  vale  of  sin  and  sorrow  for 
more  than  thirty  years,  finishing  His  work,  and  then  returning 
to  His  Father,  He  has  taught  us  how;  to  live,  and  taught  us  what 
sort  of  a  life  is  our  best  and  truest  preparation  for  going  to  the 
Father. 

And  what  is  the  force  of  that  teaching,  its  method  and  its  drift  ? 
I  answer.  It  shows  us  One  who  was  "  holy,  harmless,  undefiled,  and 
separate  from  sinners ; "  One  who,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end 
of  His  earthly  pilgrimage,  devoted  Himself  to  the  glory  of  God  and 
the  highest  welfare  of  humanity ;  One  who  "went  about  doing  good, 
and  healing  all  that  were  oppressed  of  the  devil ; "  One  who  was 
ever  diligent  in  His  work,  devotional  in  His  habits,  humble  in  spirit 
and  deportment,  patient  in  tribulation,  forbearing  towards  His  ene- 
mies, a  stranger  to  revenge,  a  pattern  of  self-denial,  the  helper  of 
the  needy,  the  instructor  of  the  ignorant,  the  comforter  of  the 
afflicted,  the  loving,  sufi"ering,  dying  friend  of  sinners — I  say,  it 
shows  us  such  an  One,  holds  Him  up  before  us  in  a  most  clear  and 
impressive  light,  bids  us  commune  with  His  history  till  we  imbibe 
His  very  spirit,  and  assures  us  that  the  more  closely  we  conform  to 
Him  in  feeling  and  deportment,  the  more  sure  and  reliable  is  our 
moral  preparation  for  the  blessedness  of  heaven.    In  reading  the 


102        CHRIST   THE  WAY,   THE   TRUTH,   AND   THE  LIFE. 

narratives  of  the  Evangelists,  we  see  more  than  the  teachings  of 
Jesus,  more  than  the  death  of  Jesus ;  we  see  His  life,  and 
"  In  that  life  the  law  appears, 
Drawn  out  in  living  characters." 

"  Follow  me,"  He  says,  pointing  to  His  own  clear  and  radiant  path- 
way— radiant  with  the  light  of  meekness,  purity,  and  love — "  I  am 
the  way."  Ah,  now  we  understand  Him ;  He  is  not  only  the  way 
to  heaven  by  His  teachings,  and  by  His  death,  but  He  is  also  the 
way  by  His  bright  and  perfect  example.  Oh,  that 'there  were  an 
heart  in  every  one  of  us  to  say, 

"  His  track  I  see,  and  Til  pursue . 
The  narrow  way,  till  Him  I  view." 

But  we  must  pass  on  to  our  second  inquiry:  What  does  Jesus 
mean  when  He  says,  "  I  am  the  truth  ?  "  I  answer — He  is  the  truth 
because  He  is  the  substance  of  all  the  typical  shadows,  and  the  ac- 
complishment of  all  the  prophecies  and  promises  of  a  Saviour,  which 
we  find  in  the  Old  Testament.  No  matter  what  these  types,  and 
prophecies,  and  promises,  may  be,  or  what  the  extent  and  value  of  the 
"  good  things  "  they  prefigured  and  predicted,  all,  all  are  realized 
in  Him.  He  is  the  true  medium  of  intercourse  between  earth  and 
heaven,  of  which  Jacob's  ladder  was  the  type.  He  is  the  true  lamb 
of  Grod  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world,  of  which  the  Pkschal 
lamb  was  the  type.  He  is  the  true  propitiatory  sacrifice,  of  which 
the  Mosaic  sacrifices  were  the  type.  He  is  the  tnie  High  Priest  and 
Intercessor,  of  which  the  Levitical  high  priests  were  the  type.  And 
He  is  the  true  object  of  faith,  the  true  source  of  spiritual  healthful- 
ness  and  healing,,  of  which  the  brazen  serpent  was  the  type.  He  is 
the  "Shiloh,"  whom  Jacob  predicted;  the  "Prophet,"  whom  Moses 
predicted;  the  "Prince  of  Peace,"  whom  Isaiah  predicted;  the 
"Lord  our  Eighteousness,"  whom  Jeremiah  predicted;  the  royal 
"David,"  whom  Ezekiel  predicted;  the  "Messiah,"  whom  Daniel 
predicted ;  the  "  Branch,"  whom  Zachariah  predicted ;  and  the 
"  Desire  of  all  nations,"  whom  Haggai  and  Malachi  --predicted.  He 
is  the  fulfilment  of  all  that  the  ancient  Prophets  announced  respect- 
ing Him  that  should  come  to  be  "  the  glory  of  Israel,"  and  "a  light 
to  lighten  the  Gentiles."  Did  they  say  He  sho\ild  be  born  in  Beth- 
lehem ?  There  Jesus  was  born.  Did  they  say  He  should  be  de- 
scended from  the  family  of  David  according  to  the  flesh  ?  Such  was 
His  descent.     Did  they  say  He  should  be  despised  and  rejected  of 


CHRIST   THE   WAY,    THE   TRUTH,    AND   THE   LIFE.         103 

men  ?  So  He  was  despised  and  rejected.  Did  they  say  He  should 
be  led  as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter  ?  So  He,  a  meek  and  patient  suf- 
ferer, was  led  to  the  death  of  the  Cross.  Did  they  say  He  should 
not  be  left  under  the  power  of  death — should  not  be  permitted  to  see 
corruption?  This  was  fulfilled  in  the  case  of  Jesus.  The  third 
day  He  rose.  Did  they  say  He  should  see  of  the  travail  of  His  soul, 
and  be  satisfied ;  that  a  seed  should  serve  Him ;  and  that  the  Lord 
would  send  the  rod  of  His  strength  out  of  Zion  ?  It  is  so  done,  even 
to  this  very  day.  His  sufi'erings  are  rewarded  in  many  lands ;  His 
converts  are  multiplying  as  the  drops  of  the  morning ;  and  the  rod 
of  His  strength,  the  Word  of  His  grace  and  salvation,  is  converting 
and  redeeming  the  world.  We  repeat  it,  then — Christ  is  the  truth 
in  this  most  interesting  and  important  sense :  He  is  the  substance 
of  all  the  typical  shadows,  and  the  fulfilment  of  all  the  inspired  pre- 
dictions and  promises  of  a  Saviour. 

But  He  is  the  truth  in  another  sense.  He  is  the  source  of  truth — 
the  great  Prophet  of  the  church,  whose  revelations  are  that  testi- 
mony, full  and  infallible,  by  believing  and  obeying  which,  sinners 
come  through  Him  "the  way"  to  the  Father  and  to  heaven.  We 
need  something  to  guide  us  every  day — something  to  show  us  our 
enemies,  that  we  may  avoid  and  resist  them — something  to  warn  us 
of  our  dangers,  that  we  may  flee  and  escape  them — something  to  set 
before  us  the  objects  of  legitimate  pursuit,  that  we  may  seek  and 
secure  them — the  objects  of  legitimate  affection  and  trust,  that  we 
may  love  and  embrace  them — something  to  tell  us  what  spirit  we 
must  exhibit,  what  aims  we  must  cherish,  what  excellences  we  must 
cultivate,  what  hopes  we  must  entertain,  and  what  duties  we  must 
perform,  that  we  may  attain  to  glory,  honor,  and  immortality.  In 
other  words,  we  need  an  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice ;  and 
Christ,  in  His  Word,  is  that  rule.  He  is  the  Amen,  the  true  and 
faithful  Witness.  The  Bible  is  His  testimony.  As  our  great  Teacher, 
He  has  given  it  to  us  for  our  guidance  and  our  good.  It  tells  us 
truly  and  unmistakably  "  what  we  are  to  believe  concerning  God, 
and  what  duty  God  requires  of  us."  It  comes  to  us  through  his 
hands  as  Mediator,  as  one  of  the  fruits  of  His  gracious  interposition ; 
and  its  every  utterance  bears  the  impress  of  His  mediatorial  faith- 
fulness and  love.  Christ  speaks  in  these  Oracles,  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end  of  the  volume — speaks  as  our  Monitor  and  Guide — speaks 
with  an  accuracy  that  never  errs,  and  with  a  fidelity  that  never  fal- 


104        CHRIST   THE   WAY,   THE  TRUTH,   AND   THE   LIFE. 

ters — speaks  for  our  benefit,  for  our  direction,  that  we  may  find  and 
pursue  the  way  to  heaven.  And  hence  it  is  that,  in  exhibiting  to 
us  His  own  character.  His  transcendent  claims  upon  our  confidence, 
He  says,  "  I  am  the  truth ; "  I  am  the  great  centre  and  source  of  that 
true  light,  the  light  of  Kevelation,  which  alone  can  guide  earth's 
guilty  and  benighted  wanderers  home. 

But  Christ  is  more  than  the  way  to  heaven — more  than  the  light 
of  truth  to  show  us  the  way ;  He  is  the  life.  He  has  life  in  Himself, 
and  He  is  the  author  of  spiritual  and  eternal  life  to  all-  who  put  their 
trust  in  Him.  Those  whom  He  saves  are  by  nature  the  children  of 
wrath,  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins.  In  this  condition,  the  Gospel  finds 
them.  They  have  ears,  but  they  hear  not;  eyes  have  they,  but  they 
see  not.  They  are  told  the  way  to  heaven,  but  they  are  listless  and 
stupid.  The  great  and  precious  truths  of  the  Gospel  are  urged  upon 
them  with  afiectionate  fidelity,  but  they  feel  no  interest,  they  exhibit 
no  concern.  The  light  shineth  in  darkness,  and  the  darkness  cbm- 
prehendeth  it  not.  What,  then,  is  the  first  great  want  of  the  per- 
ishing sinner?  Life,  life,  spiritual  life.  Life  must  be  imparted 
before  the  eye  can  see,  or  the  ear  can  hear,  or  the  heart  can  feel. 
And  who  gives  life  but  the  Prince  of  Life  ?  He  intercedes  for  His 
chosen,  even  when  they  are  dead  in  sin.  He  prays  that  they  may 
be  regenerated.  That  prayer  is  heard;  and  lo!  the  Holy  Spirit 
descends  upon  them  with  almighty  quickening  energy,  and,  in  an 
instant,  they  spring  into  life.  Old  things  pass  away,  and  all  things 
become  new.  Then  they  see  the  way,  and  they  begin  to  walk  in  it. 
Then  they  hear  the  truth,  they  understand  it,  and  they  begin  to 
make  it  their  rejoicing  and  their  guide.  Then  they  are  alive  unto 
God;  but  how?  Through  the  intercession  of  Him  who  has  said 
to  them,  "  Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also."  Regeneration,  the 
beginning  of  spiritual  life  in  the  soul,  is,  in  every  instance,  a  fruit  of 
the  Lord  Jesus'  mediation — an  answer  to  His  prayer.  And,  then, 
how  is  that  life  perpetuated  and  advanced  ?  Still  in  answer  to  the 
prayer  of  Jesus,  and  through  the  efficacy  of  His  blood.  Because  He 
lives,  and  pleads,  and  spreads  His  wounded  hands,  in  heaven,  the 
regenerated  believer  holds  on  his  way.  He  grows  in  grace ;  he  tri- 
umphs over  the  world;  he  presses  onward  and  upward;  he  runs;  he 
rises ;  he  ripens  for  glory  within  the  vail.  Why  ?  There  is  a  hidden 
bond  uniting  him  to  One  who  has  said,  "  I  am  the  life."  His  life  is 
hid  with  Christ  in  God.     There  is  a  hidden  Intercessor  who  prays 


CHRIST   THE   WAY,    THE   TRUTH,    AND   THE   LIFE.        105 

for  him  daily,  and  prevails — prays,  not  that  he  may  be  taken  out  of 
the  world,  but  that  he  may  be  kept  from  the  evil.  There  is  a  hidden 
source  of  grace,  and  strength,  and  comfort,  and  blessing,  with  which 
he  is  connected,  as  the  branch  with  the  vinej  that  source  is  "  the 
fullness  "  that  dwells  in  Jesus.  By  faith  and  prayer  he  draws  upon 
that  fullness  continually;  and  there  lies  the  secret  of  his  growth  in 
grace,  and  perseverance  therein  to  the  end.  Because  Jesus  lives,  he 
lives.  True,  the  body  dies,  and  sees  corruption ;  but  in  the  grave  it 
is  still  united  to  Him  who  is  "  the  resurrection  and  the  life,"  and, 
for  this  reason,  it  can  only  remain  there  for  a  season.  The  blood  and 
advocacy  of  Jesus  avail  even  to  the  opening  of  the  graves  of  His 
people.  In  Him  "  shall  all  be  made  alive,"  and  with  soul  and  body 
reunited,  purged  from  the  last  stain  of  sin,  and  adorned  with  "  the 
beauty  of  holiness,"  they  shall  go  up  together  to  the  employments 
and  the  rest  of  the  redeemed.  And  how  shall  it  be  with  them  there  ? 
Through  the  endless  ages,  their  vital  union  with  Jesus  will  continue. 
Through  the  endless  ages.  His  sin-atoning  merits  and  His  ever-pre- 
vailing intercession  will  be  their  security.  And  with  reference  to 
all  that  bright,  and  glorious,  and  immortal  future  which  is  before 
them,  it  will  ever  be  said  by  all  who  know  their  history,  their  rela- 
tions, and  their  indebtedness  to  the  Son  of  God,  Because  He  lives, 
they  shall  live  also.  Surely  not  less  than  all  this,  my  hearers,  does 
the  Saviour  intend  to  teach  us,  when  He  says  to  us  in  the  Scriptures, 
and  says  to  us  by  His  servants,  and  says  to  us  by  our  own  experience 
and  hope  of  His  mercy,  and  says  to  us  by  the  Cross,  and  through 
deeply  and  touchingly  significant  sacramental  symbols  of  His  own 
appointment,  "  I  am  the  life." 

You  perceive,  therefore,  that  the  passage  before  us  is  radiant 
with  light  and  mercy.  It  gives  us  just  the  instruction,  and  just 
the  encouragement,  and  just  the  word  of  warning  and  guidance, 
which  we  need.  Sin  has  darkened  our  minds.  In  our  natural 
estate,  we  are  wanderers  from  holiness  and  heaven.  Jesus  meets 
us  in  our  wanderings,  assures  us  of  His  interest  in  our  welfare, 
shows  us  what  we  must  do  and  where  we  must  go  if  we  would 
find  our  true  destination,  pours  the  radiance  of  His  own  ineffable 
character  and  doctrine  upon  our  souls,  and  says  to  us.  Give  up  the 
false  views  and  principles  that  have  been  hitherto  misleading  you ; 
sit  at  my  feet ;  confide  in  my  instructions ;  "  I  am  the  way."  But 
tJien  we  see  that  sin  is  more  than  darkness ;  it  is  guilt,  impurity,  cor- 


106        CHRIST  THE   WAY,   THE  TRUTH,   AND   THE  LIFE. 

ruption a  barrier  to  communion  with  God — a  high  and  fearful  wall 

of  separation  between  His  favoi-  and  our  souls.  Who  shall  remove 
the  barrier  ?  Who  shall  demolish  the  separating  wall  ?  Jesus  does 
it  by  His  death.  He  becomes  our  sin-atoning  sacrifice.  Trust  in  my 
merits,  He  exclaims,  and  your  iniquities  shall  be  remembered  against 
you  no  more.  "  I  am  the  way."  I  not  only  show  you  the  way  to 
the  Father,  but  I  remove  the  obstacles,  that  you  may  walk  therein 
and  be  saved.  But  when  we  have  seen  the  right  road,  and  the  ob- 
stacles to  our  entering  upon  it  have  been  removed,  and  our  feet  are 
inclining  towards  it,  we  are  ready  to  say.  Oh,  what  a  help  it  would  be 
to  us,  if  we  had  some  bright  and  perfect  pattern  of  a  holy  life  to  be 
ever  before  us  as  a  stimulus  and  a  guide.  Such  a  pattern  do  I  give 
you,  says  the  Saviour.  "  Follow  Me ; "  I  am  the  way  by  My  exam- 
ple. But  then  we  find  that  we  need  more  than  the  light  and  help  of 
such  an  example.  We  need  verbal  instruction,  line  upon  line,  and 
precept  upon  precept.  Even  this  want  is  met,  says  the  Saviour,  for 
"I  am  the  truth;"  I  am  the  substance  of  the  Old  Testament 
shadows;  I  am  the  fulfilment  of  its  predictions;  the  whole  of 
Divine  Revelation  relates  to  Me,  points  to  Me,  comes  from  Me; 
and  I  offer  it  to  you,  that.it  may  be  a  lamp  to  your  feet  and  a  light 
to  your  path.  But  then  another  difficulty  meets  us,  more  serious 
and  formidable  than  all  the  rest.  While  we  listen  to  the  Saviour's 
doctrine,  distinguishing  the  true  way  to  heaven  from  every  other  j 
while  we  contemplate  His  atonement,  levelling  and  removing  every 
barrier ;  while  we  see  His  holy  example  beckoning  us  onward  and 
upward;  and  while  we  hold  in  our  hands  the  sacred  Scriptures, 
which  are  able  to  make  us  wise  unto  salvation  through  faith  which 
is  in  Him :  behold !  what  is  our  real  condition  ?  We  are  spiritually 
dead — dead  to  the  beauty  of  holiness,  the  evil  of  sin,  the  claims  of 
God,  and  the  realities  of  eternity.  How,  then,  can  we  move  ?  How 
can  we  arise  and  go  to  the  Father  ?  We  need  some  new  principle  in 
our  very  hearts — some  living,  vital  force,  that  shall  quicken  our  facul- 
ties, break  our  fatal  slumbers,  raise  us  from  the  deep  long  death  of  sin, 
and  urge  and  impel  us  onward  to  duty  and  to  God.  And  even  this, 
says  the  Saviour,  I  am  able  to  bestow,  for  "  I  am  the  life."  I  proffer 
you  the  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  I  promise- you  perpetual  access 
to  My  own  infinite  fullness.  I  give  unto  you  eternal  life,  and  you 
shall  never  perish.  I  will  redeem  you  from  the  corruption  of  sin, 
and  through  everlasting  ages  the  promise  shall  be  gloriously  verified, 


CHRIST   THE  WAY,   THE   TRUTH,   AND   THE   LIFE.        107 

that,  "  Because  I  live,  ye  shall  live  also."  Oh,  my  hearers,  these  are 
great  and  precious  revelations.  The  eternal  Son  of  God,  "  He  of 
whom  Moses  in  the  law  and  the  Prophets  did  write,"  has  verily  come 
to  us,  perishing,  guilty  sinners,  on  an  errand  of  mercy — come  with  the 
clearest  credentials — and  what  has  He  said  ?  "  I  am  the  way  "  to  the 
Father  and  to  heaven.  I  shoio  you  the  way;  I  open  to  you  the  way. 
"I  am  the  truth;"  I  give  you  just  the  light  you  need,  and  all  the 
light  you  need,  to  direct  you  in  that  way.  "  I  am  the  life  ; "  I  offer 
you  spiritual  quickening,  the  redemption  of  the  body,  and  then 
eternal  preservation,  security,  and  blessedness,  beyond  the  reach  of 
sin  and  sorrow.  What  a  message  is  this  to  be  received  from  such  a 
source,  by  such  sinful,  erring,  dying  creatures  as  we  are  !  A  message 
of  great  joy,  indeed !  If  we  improve  it,  it  will  save  us;  but  if  we 
undervalue  and  neglect  it,  it  will  but  aggravate  our  ruin. 

The  great  question  of  questions  for  us  all  is  this  :  Are  we  going 
to  the  Father — going  to  His  glorious  and  blissful  presence,  as  our 
everlasting  home  ?  Not  by  our  own  wisdom,  our  own  righteousness, 
our  own  efforts,  can  we  reach  that  blessed  destination.  He  who  came 
from  that  presence,  and  returned  to  it  again,  has  said — and  they  are 
words  that  should  sink  down  into  our  hearts — "No  man  cometh  unto 
the  Father  but  by  Me."  You  can  go  elsewhere,  my  hearers,  without 
Christ.  You  can  go  to  the  servitude  of  sin,  and  to  the  vanities  of  the 
world,  without  Christ.  You  can  go  far,  far  away  from  a\\  your  truest 
interests  and  all  your  most  urgent  and  momentous  duties,  without 
Christ.  You  can  go  down,  down  to  lower  depths  of  darkness,  and 
impenitence,  and  unbelief,  and  sin,  without  Christ.  You  can  go  to 
a  cheerless  sick  bed,  and  a  hopeless  death,  and  a  terrifying  judgment 
seat,  and  a  wretched  eternity,  without  Christ.  But  if  you  would  turn 
your  face  in  the  other  direction ;  if  you  would  aspire  to  a  brighter 
destiny ;  if  you  would  rise  to  the  soul's  true  rest,  the  bosom  of  your 
Father  and  your  God ;  then  you  must  hear  and  heed  the  declaration 
of  the  Son  of  God,  "No  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  Me." 
Rely  upon  it,  this  Jesus  whom  we  preach  is  the  ladder  by  which  you 
must  climb  to  heaven ;  He  is  the  truth  that  must  direct  you  in  your 
upward  progress ;  and  He  is  the  life  that  must  quicken,  and  animate, 
and  sustain,  and  preserve  you,  to  the  end  of  your  journey  and  for- 
ever. Shall  He  be  ^ow  way,  T/oia-  light,  your  life — or  will  you  turn 
away  from  Him,  and  reject  Him,  and  wander  on  and  perish  ?  My 
brethren,  is  Christ  mir  way,  our  light,  our  life  ?  and  are  we  actually 


108        CHRIST  THE  WAY,   THE   TRUTH,   AND   THE   LIFE. 

going  to  heaven,  by  the  guidance  of  His  Word,  the  efficacy  of  His 
atonement,  and  the  vitalizing  power  of  His  Spirit.  Oh,  then,  let  us 
be  thankful  unto  Him,  and  bless  His  name  forever.  Let  us  cleave 
to  Him  with  a  fonder  affection,  and  rely  upon  Him  with  a  firmer 
confidence,  and  serve  Him  with  a  warmer  and  a  more  unreserved 
devotion  to  His  person  and  His  cause.  Nor  let  it  seem  to  be  among 
the  least  of  our  precious  privileges,  that  from  time  to  time  we  are 
permitted  to  sit  together  at  His  table,  and  to  do  this  in  remembrance 
of  Him  whom  we  do  delight  to  remember  and  to  henor  as  the  Way, 
the  Truth,  and  the  Life — by  whom,  as  we.  humbly  hope  and  believe, 
we  are  going  to  the  rest  of  the  ransomed — going  to  the  very  foun- 
tain of  blessedness — -going  to  the  Father. 


/U 


^TvTH^  TTV 


.V•fT•>J<^ 


id  of  restlessness 
rized  wi:' 


.  ft  ot  im; 

of  vieissi; 
!   ■Hns  b- 


u  its 


tic  similitude.    Uut  in  this  t6xt  there  is  a  gc  ';'yofidea.    It 


;birng-fai': 


iri!»TV  Ibn 


to  fall  in  his' 
« 

-ntry,  nur 


110  INDIVIDUAL   MORAL   INFLUENCE. 

it  appeared  to  the  mind  of  the  inspired  writer,  and,  so  conceiving  it, 
we  shall  find  it  invested  with  new  beauty  and  additional  propriety. 
Among  the  nations  of  the  East,  the  principal  routes  of  travel  and 
trade  are,  as  you  are  aware,  over  land.  Extended  between  the  points 
of  chief  resort,  there  are  commonly  vast  deserts,  arid  and  inhospitable 
climes,  infested  by  predatory  communities,  which  ever  since  the  dawn 
of  history  have  subsisted  by  rapine — "  their  hands  being  against 
every  man,  and  every  man's  hand  against  them."  For  these  reasons, 
the  usual  method  of  travelling  in  those  lands  has  always  been  in  large 
companies,  for  the  sake  of  mutual  protection  and  assistance".  Conse- 
quently, we  are  to  conceive  of  human  life,  in  the  idea  of  the  Apostle, 
as  a  pilgrimage  which  many  pursue  together;  a  vast  and  innumerable 
caravan,  moving  on  in  one  long-extended  and  never-pausing  column 
to  the  silent  realms  of  shade.  But  we  must  remember  that,  unlike 
other  pilgrimages,  the  destination  in  this  case  is  constantly  in  view, 
the  arrival  uncertain  as  to  time,  but  sure  in  the  event.  Death,  like 
a  narrow  stream,  divides  us  from  the  unknown  and  untravelled  regions 
to  which  we  pass.  The  way  tends  along  the  shore  of  a  vast  and  lim- 
itless ocean,  while  before  and  behind  us  are  many  who  are  summoned 
ever  and  anon  to  embark.  Often  we  see  the  wretched  survive  the 
fortunate,  the  feeble  as  often  wrap  the  athletic  in  his  shroud  j  de- 
crepid  age  still  totters  along  its  way,  while  the  young  and  vigorous 
form  that  sustained  it  is  dragged  down  from  its  support.  And  we 
must  also  remember,  that  though  the  progress  is  in  a  crowd,  the 
arrival  of  each  pilgrim  is  nevertheless  solitary  and  alone.  The  last 
downward  leap  into  the  gloom  is  the  way  of  all  the  earth ;  but  it  is  a 
way  which  each  one  must  adventure  unsupported  and  unattended  by 
any  earthly  companion.  It  is  but  to  do  what  at  the  very  moment, 
among  the  myriads  of  the  peopled  earth,  a  thousand  and  a  thousand 
more  among  the  pilgrim  multitudes  must  do  also.  The  little  compa- 
nies which  have  been  gathered  along  the  journey  by  the  ties  of  con- 
sanguinity or  of  friendship,  or  clustered  into  family  groups,  must  be 
broken  up,  must  separate,  called  one  by  one  in  succession  to  that 
long  and  dreary  voyage  that  must  be  made  in  loneliness.  The  last 
look  is  caught,  the  last  tender  farewell  spoken,  which  cheers  the 
summoned  spirit  ere  it  puts  forth  into  that  viewless  world  from  which 
no  voyager  ever  comes  back,  and  a  void  is  visible  in  the  surviving 
band,  which  in  the  turmoil  of  the  crowding  multitudes  is  soon  filled 
up  and  forgotten !   In  such  a  pilgrimage^  to  which  the  text  has  evi- 


INDIVIDUAL   MORAL   INFLUENCE.  Ill 

dent  allusion,  the  mind  of  every  wayfarer  should  be  awake  to  the 
momentous  warning:  "Let  no  man  put  a  stumbling-block  or  an  occa- 
sion to  fall  in  his  brother's  way;"  for  in  that  common  journey,  that 
vast  and  reckless  caravan  of  souls,  the  progress  of  each  must  be  aided 
or  impeded  by  his  fellows. 

From  every  heart  there  proceed  influences,  more  or  less  powerful, 
which  radiate  and  entwine  with  other  hearts.  Soul  acts  and  reacts 
upon  soul,  and  the  spark  which  fires  a  single  breast  is  conveyed  like 
electricity  to  surrounding  bosoms.  The  present  happiness  and  future 
destiny  of  every  individual  depend  in  a  very  great  measure  on  the 
character  and  force  of  the  external  influences  acting  on  his  mind 
from  the  minds  of  others.  Man  is  a  social  animal ;  often  he  debases 
his  nature  to  a  character  rather  gregarious  than  social,  by  yielding 
his  own  better  thoughts  to  the  evil  impulses  of  the  mass;  or  by 
blindly  following  the  lead  of  some  fellow  worm,  whom  his  foolish 
idolatry  has  elevated  into  the  place  of  a  divinity.  In  this  latter 
aspect,  the  features  of  man's  moral  constitution,  which  we  are  now 
considering,  assume  a  humiliating  and  even  a  degrading  prominence. 
All  the  great  revolutions  in  human  society  have  been  brought  about 
mainly  through  the  influence  and  activity  of  a  few  individuals.  The 
annals  of  the  world  exhibit  the  actions  of  only  a  small  number ;  and 
all  the  important  events  of  its  history,  which  are  strewn  along  a  track 
of  about  six  thousand  years,  would  be  necessarily  recounted  in  giving 
the  biography  of  some  six  hundred  persons.  The  three  greatest 
empires  of  the  earth  began  with  the  manhood  of  Cyrus,  Alexander, 
and  Tamerlane,  and  crumbled  into  pieces  with  the  dust  of  their 
founders. 

On  the  confines  of  civilized  Europe,  a  little  more  than  a  century 
ago,  the  now  mighty  empire  of  Russia  was  regarded  and  spoken  of  as 
a  country  unexplored  and  barbarous.  It  had  scarcely  a  name  in  his- 
tory, and  was  hardly  numbered  among  the  nations.  It  was  a  sort  of 
loose  aggregation  of  savage  tribes,  held  under  some  restraint  by  the 
fiercest  and  most  powerful  of  them,  called  Muscovites,  but  politically 
and  commercially  almost  as  remote  from  the  world's  ken,  from  the 
observation  of  the  keen-sighted  spirit  of  trade,  as  the  ice-bound 
coasts  of  Wilkes's  land,  or  the  interior  and  sun-scorched  plains  of 
Africa.  A  native  prince  of  the  Romauofi"  family,  reared  in  the  midst 
of  feuds  and  scenes  of  contention  and  blood,  Peter  Alexio- 
WITZKI  by  name,  with  little  to  sustain  him  besides  his  own  trusty 


112  INDIVIDUAL   MURAL   INFLUENCE. 

sword  and  indomitable  spirit,  conceived  the  noble  but  apparently 
hopeless  design  of  elevating  his  country  in  the  scale  of  nations.  He 
travelled  abroad  to  acquire  knowledge  in  the  prosecution  of  his  pur- 
pose. He  went  to  London,  to  learn  the  complex  operations  of  gov- 
ernment, finance,  and  commerce.  He  wrought  at  the  trade  of  a  ship 
carpenter,  in  the  naval  yards  of  Saardam,  in  Holland.  In  short,  he 
left  no  efforts  untried  and  no  opportunities  unemployed  to  perfect 
himself  in  all  the  arts  of  government,  that  he  might  meliorate  the 
condition  of  his  rude  subjects,  improve  their  social  character,  and 
raise  their  political  state.  He  invited  men  of  learning  and  of  skill 
in  all  the  arts  of  life  to  settle  in  Kussia,  and  by  their  well-rewarded 
labors  to  aid  his  own  endeavors.  Now,  contemplate  for  a  moment  the 
results  following  upon  the  persevering  exertions  of  an  individual. 
The  silent  rivers  and  widespread  lakes  of  Muscovy  were  suddenly 
made  white  with  the  sails  of  trade — her  vast  plains  were  covered  with 
waving  crops  of  golden  grain — the  magnificent  city  of  St.  Peters- 
burg, with  its  marble  palaces,  arose  magic-like  out  of  the  icy  swamps 
of  the  Neva — a  powerful  navy  issued  from  the  unfrequented  ports  of 
the  frozen  •  Baltic — in  the  thick  darkness  of  ignorance,  institutions 
of  learning  were  lighted  up,  like  beacon  flames,  to  dispel  the  gloom 
and  shadows  that  had  brooded  over  a  land  of  barbarism  and  cruelty, 
and  Europe  was  astonished  by  the  sudden  apparition  of  a  gigantic 
sovereignty,  with  its  powerful  and  disciplined  armies,  its  numerous 
and  well-appointed  fleets,  entering  into  a  fierce  conflict  with  the 
veteran  troops  of  Sweden,  headed  by  Charles  XII,  and,  after  a  strug- 
gle of  twenty-one  years,  finally  crushing  him  upon  the  bloody  field 
of  Pultowa.  More  than  this :  Peter  laid  the  foundations  of  an  em- 
pire, and  by  his  wise  policy  so  consolidated  its  resources  and  strength 
as  to  enable  it  single-handed  to  meet  and  drive  back  the  great  captain 
of  modern  times,  at  the  head  of  victorious  legions  that  had  gathered 
laurels  in  nearly  every  country  of  Europe.  And  in  our  own  times 
we  have  seen  Russia  braving  the  banded  nations  of  the  Old  World, 
which,  having  felt  the  power  of  her  arms,  now  look  upon  her  grasp- 
ing ambition  with  trouble,  and  regard  her  expanding  proportions 
with  unconcealed  dread. 

Take  another  more  recent  but  no  less  illustrative  and  striking  ex- 
ample. 

About  eighty  years  ago,  an  obscure  and  untitled  boy  was  studying 
mathematics  at  the  military  school  of  Brienne,  in  France.    In  a  little 


INDIVIDUAL   MORAL  INFLUENCE.  113 

while,  that  youth,  having  ripened  into  manhood,  was  raised  by  the 
frantic  devotion  of  his  fellow  beings  almost  to  the  pinnacle  of  uni- 
versal rule.  Alike  on  the  burning  sands  of  Syria  and  in  the  moun- 
tain defiles  of  Spain,  beneath  the  shadows  of  the  Pyramids  of  Egypt 
and  amid  the  drifting  snows  of  Kussia,  the  altar  of  his  ambition 
reeked  with  holocausts  of  human  sacrifice,  until  made  captive,  as  it 
were,  by  an  assembled  world,  he  was  conveyed  to  a  sterile  rock  island 
in  mid  ocean,  and  there  watched  by  trained  sentinels  and  guarded 
by  armed  fleets !  And  why  ?  Because  his  personal  influence  over  the 
minds  of  his  fellow  men  was  a  spell  so  potent  and  tremendous,  that 
the  stamp  of  his  foot  on  the  soil  of  Europe  would  have  raised  legions 
of  armed  men  to  do  his  bidding  of  slaughter  and  death,  and  from 
the  yet  warm  ashes  of  past  conflagrations  the  fires  of  desolation 
would  have  again  been  kindled  and  swept  over  a  war-wasted  world. 
These  may  be,  perhaps,  regarded  as  extreme  instances  to  illustrate 
the  power  and  force  of  individual  moral  influence.  But  in  all  other 
departments  of  human  thought  and  action,  the  same  characteristic 
prevails.  Persons  are  the  springs,  and  names  are  the  watchwords,  of 
all  human  efibrts.  A  name  is  often,  with  men,  the  prestige  of  success 
in  the  most  difficult  and  desperate  enterprises.  It  will  rouse  men  to 
the  most  determined  exertions,  it  will  support  them  under  the  most 
cruel  sufi"erings,  it  will  cheer  them  in  the  hour  of  death.  What's 
in  a  name  ?  does  any  one  ask  ?  Let  the  bleeding  and  dying  corporal 
of  the  old  guard  on  the  field  of  Waterloo,  in  his  reply  to  the  British 
surgeon,  who,  in  removing  a  shattered  rib  from  near  his  heart,  asked. 
Where  is  the  Emperor?  answer  the  question.  "Cut  an  inch  deeper, 
sir,  and  you  will  find  him" — meaning,  of  course,  in  his  heart.  What's 
in  a  name  ?  There  is  that  in  it  which  challenges  the  reverence  and 
the  homage  of  heaven  and  earth.  For  "  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every 
knee  shall  bow,  of  things  in  heaven,  and  things  in  earth,  and  things 
under  the  earth,  and  every  tongue  shall  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father ! "  In  polities,  in  letters,  even 
in  religion,  the  authority  of  a  name  is  often  more  influential  and 
convincing  than  an  argument;  and  the  individual  to  whom  Provi- 
dence has  accorded  such  intellectual  sway.  Providence  will  hold  ac- 
countable, not  only  for  his  own  faults  and  errors,  but,  so  far  as  these 
have  affected  the  interests  of  others,  for  the  faults  and  errors  of 
peoples,  sects,  and  generations  of  mankind.  It  is  not  the  heathen 
mythology  only  that  affords  examples  of  the  apotheosis  of  human 


114  INDIVIDUAL  MORAL  INFLUENCE. 

nature.  The  altar  smokes  with  sacrifice  long  after  the  idol  has  be- 
come dust ;  and  the  dicta  of  the  oracle  are  law  to  its  votaries,  long 
after  the  lips  that  uttered  them  are  silent  in  death.  Statues  are 
erected  in  their  honor,  institutions  are  decorated  with  their  names, 
orations  are  pronounced  in  their  eulogy,  and  pilgrimages  are  made 
to  their  tombs.  As  years  roll  on,  their  fame,  instead  of  fading, 
gathers  a  more  reverend  lustre,  and  on  each  anniversary  of  their 
birth  the  air  rings  with  the  shouts  of  rejoicing  thousands,  and  the 
welkin  is  rent  with  the  thunders  of  artillery. 

The  bearing  of  such  extensive  and  powerful  influences  on  the 
moral  and  religious  welfare  of  human  society  is  too  conspicuous  to 
require  development  or  to  call  for  argument.  But  in  the  aspect 
which  most  demands  our  attention,  which  falls  legitimately  within 
the  scope  of  remark  proper  from  the  pulpit — for  what  are  all  other 
interests,  compared  with  the  interests  of  eternity  ? — the  principle  in 
question  displays  not  its  most  important  operation  in  those  celebrated 
and  notorious  examples  of  individual  influence  to  which  reference 
was  just  now  made.  The  man  whose  authority  and  example  have 
degraded  the  moral  sentiment  and  impeded  the  religious  melioration 
of  his  age  and  country,  has  committed  acts  of  turpitude  and  inflicted 
injury  enough  to  weigh  down  more  than  all  the  political  and  literary 
merit  that  can  be  claimed  for  him  by  his  veriest  idolaters.  Mental ' 
impressions  are  often  enfeebled  by  the  distance  of  the  agent  that 
produces  them ;  but  moral  impressions  are  more  forcible  in  propor- 
tion to  the  familiarity  and  contiguity  of  the  productive  cause. 

Thus,  in  literature,  men  render  the  homage  of  their  admiration  to 
genius,  but  they  are  most  attracted  by  characters  which  come  into 
close  and  sympathetic  intercourse  with  the  heart  of  the  reader.  We 
admire  Byron.  We  love  Wordsworth.  Than  the  former,  a  more 
brilliant  star  has  not  shed  -its  light  upon  the  horizon  of,  letters  in 
modern  times.  But  it  was  a  wandering  star,  dazzling  by  its  splen- 
dor, throwing  off  coruscations  in  its  wayward  course,  that  led  men  to 
gaze,  and,  while  gazing  and  admiring,  to  tremble,  9s  at  the  appear- 
ance of  something  strange,  unearthly,  and  to  fear  that,  like  the  flash 
from  the  dark  bosom  of  the  thunder-cloud,  it  might  blast  and  destroy 
them.  With  Wordsworth,  we  feel  that  it  would  have  been  a  blessed 
privilege  to  sit  down  with  him  on  the  margin  of  his  own  Winde- 
mere,  which  he  loved,  with  its  smooth  and  glassy  waters,  and  in  the 
silence  of  the  evening,  when  the  stars  began  to  look  down  from  their 


INDIVIDUAL    MORAL   INFLUENCE.  115 

watch-towers,  or  in  the  bright  and  glorious  morning,  amid  the  hum 
of  insects  and  the  carols  of  birds,  and  under  bright  clouds  floating 
on  the  deep  blue  seas  above,  hear  him  discourse  of  God's  goodness, 
God's  mercy,  and  God's  love — of  man's  dependence,  man's  duties, 
and  man's  destiny  !  Byron's  was  unsanctified  genius;  his  splendid 
endowments  unconsecrated  but  to  selfish  ends  and  the  diabolical  pur- 
pose of  corrupting  his  kind.  And  of  all  devices  put  in  operation  by 
the  cunning  of  the  devil  for  the  demoralization  and  ruin  of  men, 
there  is  not,  perhaps,  one  so  subtle,  so  disguised,  and  so  efiectual,  as 
that  which  seeks  first  to  debauch  the  mind  in  order  to  deprave  the 
conduct — to  pollute  the  heart  in  order  to  degrade  the  person.  This 
is  fearfully  and  shockingly  exemplified  in  the  character  of  our  ephem- 
eral literature — in  those  light  productions  which  the  press  throws  off 
yearly  by  hundreds  of  thousands  of  pages,  and  which  are  to  be  found 
at  all  the  thoroughfares  of  the  country,  at  the  railroad  depots  of  our 
large  cities,  at  the  principal  steamboat  landings,  and  in  the  hands  of 
all  the  news-mongers  and  vendors  of  novels  and  novelettes  through- 
out the  land.  Whatever  the  taste  may  be,  or  whatever  the  fancy  to 
be  gratified,  appropriate  food  is  provided  for  its  indulgence,  from  the 
marvellous  and  the  beautiful,  to  the  terrible,  the  atrocious,  and  the 
horrible,  presented  in  pictures  for  the  eye,  songs  for  the  ear,  and 
narratives  for  the  mind.  And  thus,  with  the  vast  majority  of  the 
young  who  travel — who  seek  amusement  at  places  of  fashionable 
concourse,  and  whose  unoccupied  hours  are  given  up  to  this  kind  of 
reading — life  is  divested  of  all  reality;  sober,  serious  reflection  is 
banished;  the  lessons  of  experience  are  lost  upon  them;  the  voice 
of  conscience  is  stifled;  they  live  on  present  enjoyment,  and  revel  in 
anticipation  in  scenes  of  coming  bliss,  and  thus  become  trained  in 
mind  and  heart  to  adopt  any  sentiments,  and  fall  easy  and  almost  un- 
resisting victims  to  the  arts  of  the  profligate  and  the  designing. 

A  few  months  since,  I  met  with  a  young  man  on  bis  way  to  join 
General  Walker  in  Nicaragua,  who  said  that  that  daring  adventurer 
and  fomenter  of  revolutions  for  freedom's  sake  n^ould  never  again 
visit  the  United  States,  unless  he  came  at  the  head  of  a  victorious 
army  through  the  conquered  domains  of  the  IMontezumas ;  that  it 
was  his  purpose  thus  to  return  to  overthrow  this  Republic,  erect  on 
its  ruins  the  most  glorious  throne  on  wliich  men  had  ever  gazed,  and 
establish  here  a  Government  to  rule  the  world.  What  though  this 
be,  in  our  estimation,  the  veriest  rodomontade?     It  shows  in  what 


116  INDIVIDUAL   MORAL  INFLUENCE. 

vagaries  of  imaginatiou  the  youthful  mind  of  the  country  indulges, 
and  in  what  fancies  '^t  disports.  Certainly  they  are  not  more  extrav- 
agant than  were  the  day-dreams  of  Napoleon's  boyhood,  which  con- 
templated Constantinople  as  the  capital  of  an  empire  whose  glories 
should  eclipse  the  splendors  of  all  preceding  dynasties,  and  more 
than  realize  the  magnificent  creations  of  Eastern  romance.  There 
are  doubtless  thousands,  now  in  this  land,  burning  with  the  ambition 
which  fired  the  breast  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  and  who,  if  opportunity 
favored,  would,  like  him,  wade  through  seas  of  blodd,  and  tl-ample 
thousands  into  the  dust  of  death,  if  they  might  thus  grasp  the  scep- 
tre of  power,  and  place  a  diadem  on  their  brows.  Happily  for  the 
peace  of  the  world,  there  are  few  Napoleons  among  the  many  actu- 
ated by  the  like  or  an  equal  ambition.  But  if,  in  the  common  road 
of  life,  there  be  truth  in  the  beautiful  fancy  of  the  poet,  that  "  full 
many  a  flower  is  born  to  blush  unseen,  and  waste  its  sweetness  on 
the  desert  air,"  never  attaining  the  notoriety  necessary  to  gain  intel- 
lectual influence  and  eminence,  it  is  also  true,  on  the  other  hand, 
and  the  observation  of  almost  every  man  verifies  the  fact,  that  full 
many  a  weed  of  society,  low,  nauseous,  pestiferous,  unsung  by  the 
satirist,  unnoted  on  the  records  of  published  villainy,  flourishing  un- 
regarded and  rotting  unmissed  and  forgotten,  has  infused  poison  and 
.poured  ruin  into  hearts  within  the  natural  circle  of  its  baleful  influ- 
ence, to  an  extent  and  degree  that  efi"ectually  counteracted  the  opposite 
efi"orts  of  men  who  have  toiled  and  wrought  diligently  in  the  tasks 
of  philanthropy,  and  thus  striven,  by  doing  good,  to  gain  an  honored 
and  enduring  remembrance.  Yes,  it  is  indeed  a  humiliating  and 
disheartening  thought,  that  the  honest  and  faithful  herald  of  the 
Cross,  whose  days  of  labor  and  weariness,  and  nights  of  study  and 
prayer,  are  devoted  to  the  extension  of  his  Master's  kingdom,  and 
before  whom  are  congregatexi  every  Sunday,  for  the  very  purpose  on 
which  he  is  sent,  those  same  hearts  which  he  seeks  to  impress  and 
influence— maj  strive  faithfully  in  his  labor  of  love,  and  yet  strive  in 
vain — may  persevere  through  long  years  of  patient  self-denial,  and 
live  on  through  despondency  and  the  sickening  process  of  hope  de- 
ferred, and  feel  the  spirit  dying  in  his  heart,  and  the  marrow  drying 
up  in  his  bones,  and  yet  effect  less  for  the  promotion  of  holiness  among 
men— by  his  stated  public  and  professional  exertions— by  his  admoni- 
tions, expostulations,  and  reproofs— by  the  purity  of  his  life— by  his 
exemplary  deportment  and  godly  conversation— <Aa?i  is  witnessed  in 


INDIVIDUAL   MORAL   INFLUENCE.  117 

the  magnitude  and  extent  of  the  harm  wrought  in  the  same  commu- 
nity by  one  emissary  of  Satan,  seeking  the  gratification  of  his  own 
gross  and  depraved  appetites — pandering  to  the  corrupt  inclinations 
and  low  propensities  of  the  vulgar  crew  of  which  he  is  the  leader,  and 
thus  plunging  souls  into  perdition  by  the  fatal  influence  of  his 
wretched  principles,  and  by  the  death-doing  mischief  of  his  ruinous 
example.  The  influence  of  this  moral  contagion,  which  is  so  easily  com- 
municated in  the  circumstances  in  which  we  find  human  society,  can 
scarcely  be  over-estimated.     In  our  country,  especially,  almost  every 
man  can  gain  some  measure  of  influence ;  and  no  matter  what  may 
be  his  opinions  upon  any  subject — morals,  religion,  politics — through 
the  tremendous  power  of  the  press  he  can  speedily  scatter  them> 
broadcast  through  the  land,  from  Maine  to  Georgia,  from  Virginia 
to  California.     It  is  something  which  demands  the  most  serious  at- 
tention of  every  man  who  loves  his  country,  his  family,  and  his  kind. 
It  is  the  mighty  agent  in  transmitting  and  circulating  through  a 
thousand  channels,  swelling  into  resistless  torrents  the  great  stream 
of  human  depravity.     It  is,  to  every  soul  among  us,  the  just  occasion 
of  deep  anxiety  and  painful  care.     It  is  the  parent  of  solemn  duties, 
the  stimulus  to  constant  and  wakeful  vigilance,  the  source  of  burden- 
some responsibilities.   It  ought  to  be  the  provocative  of  earnest  efibrt, 
the  theme  of  fervent  prayer  for  light,  guidance,  and  help,  from  on 
high.    Moral  impulses^  we  repeat,  arc  infectious.    Philosophy  tells  us 
that  a  stone  cast  into  the  ocean  communicates  an  impulse  to  its  waters 
which  is  felt  on  the  most  distant  shore  washed  by  its  waves,  and  that 
a  word  spoken  makes  an  impression  on  our  atmosphere  coextensive 
with  its  limits.     The  idea  is  a  grand  one  for  contemplation.     It  is  a 
more  fearful  thought  to  consider,  that  in  the  contact  of  men,  through- 
out the  multiform  and  complicated  interlacings  of  human  association, 
an  impression  for  good  or  for  evil  is  necessarily  and  inevitably  made 
upon  each  other.     "Wherever  there  is  intercourse  between  man  and 
man,  there  is  incurred  a  reciprocal  moral  responsibility,  correspond- 
ing in  degree  to  the  intimacy  of  that  intercourse,  and  proportioned  to 
the  force  of  the  circumstances  which  create  the  influence.     Thus  the 
principles  and  practice  of  parents  tell  most  powerfully  upon  the  char- 
acter and  conduct  of  their  children.     The  care  and  influence  of 
teachers  generally  give  shape  to  the  future  destiny  of  their  pupils. 
The  intimacies  of  friendship  impart  complexion  to  the  deportment, 
as  exhibited  on  the  theatre  of  life;  and  those  elevated,  by  wealth,  tal- 


118  INDIVIDUAL    MORAL   INFLUENCE. 

cuts,  aucl  power,  to  higli  social  positions,  become  the  guides  and  ex- 
amples of  others  in  humbler  conditions  and  less  conspicuous  stations. 
Throu"-h  all  these  ramifications  of  the  social  state,  this  moral  respon- 
sibility exists;  and  there  is  no  possible  escape  from  it,  unless  men 
flee  from  the  converse  of  their  fellows,  and  seek  refuge,  like  an- 
chorites, in  the  caverns  of  the  mountains  or  the  deserts  of  the  earth. 

Men,  therefore,  who  are  morally  diseased,  are  as  justly  accountable 
for  the  moral  corruption  with  which  they  taint  the  social  atmos- 
pliere — ^l^y  their  language,  their  conduct,  or  their  writings — as  re- 
sponsible for  the  contagion  which  they  communicate  to  other  hearts, 
scattering  around  them,  with  thoughtless  levity,  "  arrows,  firebrands, 
and  death,"  as  the  physically  diseased,  who,  with  fiendish,  malignity, 
seek  to  spread  their  own  loathsomeness  through  the  community. 

The  practical  bearing  of  these  remarks  will  not  be  misunderstood, 
I  am  persuaded,  by  those  for  whose  benefit  their  delivery  is  chiefly 
intended.  Some  one  has  written,  that  "  if  there  be  a  period  in  mjin's 
brief  but  eventful  pilgrimage,  more  than  another,  at  which  perils 
surround  him,  when  the  passions  are  strong  for  evil  or  for  good, 
when  the  mind  is  powerfully  susceptible  to  virtuous  or  to  vicious 
impressions  and  impulses,  that  is  the  brief  period  which  connects 
youth  with  manhood,  that  bridges  the  narrow  gulf  between  the  docile 
disciple  and  the  man  who  is,  or  conceives  himself  to  be,  now  his  own 
master.  Just  as  in  summer,  it  is  said,  there  are  a  few  days  which 
determine  the  condition  of  the  coming  harvest.  If  the  sun  then 
shines  bright  and  warm,  the  juices  are  matured  and  consolidated,  and 
made  ready  for  the  autumn.  But  if  cold  and  withering  mildews  de- 
scend, a  few  hours  destroy  the  fair  progress  of  months,  and  the  lovely ' 
prospect  of  spring  is  at  once  and  forever  blasted;  and  the  havoc  is  all 
the  more  apparent  in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  herbage  and  verd- 
ure over  which  the  ungenial  winds  have  swept  their  deadly  course. 
So,  too,  a  few  years — it  may  be  mouths,  nay  days,  with  maiiy — have 
accomplished  the  fatal  work,  when  the  instructions  of  youthful  days 
were  uprooted.  Whilst  men  were  asleep,  the  ever-wakeful  enemy 
of  God  and  man  has  sowed  tares  broadcast,  where  ^heat  had  been 
often  strewed.  We  have  seen  many  a  youthful  mind,  opening  with 
the  fair  prospect  of  blossoms  ripening  into  the  perfect  fruits  of  right- 
eousness, nursed  under  the  prayerful  anxieties  of  godly  parents,  and 
enjoying,  too,  the  advantage  of  a  Christian  ministry  and  an  enlight- 
ened course  of  religious  instruction,  but  passing  too  soon  under  the 


INDIVIDUAL   MORAL   INFLUENCE.  119 

tempest  of  the  world's  temptations,  become  a  barren  and  blasted 
branch  of  the  social  tree 

What  a  disastrous  termination  is  thus  seen  to  mark  often  the 
fondest  parental  hopes,  the  diligent  labors  of  faithful  teachers,  the 
reasonable  expectations  of  loving  friends !  Can  any  effort  of  asso- 
ciated benevolence,  or  any  word  of  friendly  counsel,  be  misplaced, 
which  seeks  to  guard  the  rising  generation  against  results  so  fatal  to 
themselves,  so  painful  to  their  friends,  so  ruinous  to  the  best  interests 
of  their  country  ! 

Hear  the  words  of  the  wisest  among  men  : 

"  Happy  is  the  man  that  findeth  wisdom,  and  the  man  that  getteth 
understanding.  For  the  merchandise  of  it  is  better  than  the  mer-; 
chandise  of  silver,  and  the  gain  thereof  than  fine  gold.  She  is  more 
precious  than  rubies,  and  all  the  things  that  thou  canst  desire  are 
not  to  be  compared  unto  her.  Length  of  days  is  in  her  right  hand, 
and  in  her  left  hand  riches  and  honor.  Her  ways  are  ways  of  pleas- 
antness, and  all  her  paths  are  peace  ! " 

"  Now  to  God  the  Father,"  &c. 


^31-a.Tred  "by- J-  C.  B-a»re.  -• 


7^  ^T^-'t^ 


Ot,,-<i^, 


X  QUESTION  AND  ITS  ANSWER,  FOR  YOUNG  MEN. 


II.  The  Answc] 
Word." 

Of  the  importance  of  vu:.  (|ue 
that  I  .shall  Icnve  to  >)c  i^feivYl  ^ 
1.  Tb. 


:uua  cleau:it'  his 

■•ordinp:  to  Thy 
T  s].i(.';ik  p;irtiCii'aiiv  ) 


ah.       4 

-....     ,. ..>„ „..        i .^-.  . .    :iijch  evci) 

feature  gives  utterance.  His  sanguine  spirit  feasts  upon  the  prom- 
ises of  hope,  and  his  glowing  fancy  invests  every  prospect  of  the 
future  with  Eden-like  enchantment.  He  hi  the  subject  of  interest 
to  all ;  childhood  and  maturity  are  in  synipaiby  with  him,  and  evin 
'  im  an  object  of  attraetior  '-■  fails  to  charm. 

n  make  an  old  man  wi  x  again,  it  i.s  the 

c  everywhere  fiml-  the  young  marl;  if 

''    him  to  fli  vhich  he  h;is  re- 

■'■  .sthesoli^:"  ■■.mself,  feels  for 

the  > 


122  A   QUESTION  AND   ITS   ANSWEK, 

The  past  belonged  to  our  fathers ;  they  are  gone.  The  present 
is  ours,  on  whom  is  devolved  the  responsibility  of  the  living  ao-e. 
The  future  is  to  be  the  young  man's.  True,  many  will  die  without 
possessing  the  inheritance ;  but  of  those  who  gain  it,  their  purity  of 
character  in  time,  and  their  happiness  of  existence  in  eternity,  depend 
upon  accepting  the  counsel  of  my  text. 

The  past  died  with  our  fathers,  bequeathing  its  estate  to  the 
present;  and  of  the  possessions  of  the  present  the  future  is  the  pros- 
pective heir.  If  this  age  shall  do  as  much  for  the  future  as  the 
past  has  done  for  the  present,  who  shall  estimate  the  value  of  the 
inheritance  awaiting  the  young  man  ?  True,  it  is  only  in  a  limited 
sense  that  it  can  be  said  that  the  succeeding  age  begins  where  the 
preceding  has  left  off,  and  this,  in  a  measure,  may  account  for  the 
tardy  progress  of  humanity  toward  the  intellectual  and  moral  perfec- 
tion which  it  is  destined  to  attain.  Each  proceeds  from  the  same 
starting  point  of  first  principles,  and  growth  depends  upon  the  facili- 
ties with  which  the  past  has  furnished  the  present,  and  upon  the 
facilities  with  which  the  present  shall  furnish  the  future.  Progress 
is  indefinite,  and  capacity  for  its  development  is  that  property  in 
man's  nature  most  resembling  the  Infinite.     Our  fathers  toiled  alono- 

>  -  ^ 

in  travel  by  horseback,  or  in  lumbering  stage  coaches,  at  the  rate  of 
four  or  five  miles  an  hour ;  without  weariness,  by  steamboat  or  rail'- 
road,  we  travel  twenty.  The  sixty  days  required  to  cross  the  ocean 
have  been  reduced  to  ten.  We  all  remember  when  post  or  express 
was  our  swiftest  means  of  communication  with  distant  places.  Now, 
intelligence  we  wish  to  convey,  can  be  sent  with  lightning  speed 
along  the  telegraphic  wires.  But,  far  as  were  our  fathers,  behind  us 
in  these  respects,  where  would  we  have  been,  had  they  not  prepared 
the  way  for  our  progress  ?  Do  we  owe  nothing  to  their  science  and 
enterprise  ?  I  need  not  say,  if  I  could  estimate  it,  how  much  we  are 
indebted  to  such  minds  as  Fulton  and  Franklin. 

If  the  present  shall  furnish  to  the  future,  facilities  to  progress 
equal  to  those  furnished  by  the  past  to  the  present,  what  may  be 
expected  of  the  age  to  come,  in  which  the  young  man  is  to  be  the 
responsible  actor  ?  The  future  is  his  sphere ;  the  wealth  of  the 
present,  his  capital.  As  the  future  shall  become  to  him  the  living 
present,  he  shall  make  th^  investments  which  shall  subsist  society, 
the  church,  and  the  nation.  These  are  destined  to  be  what  he  shall 
make  them. 


FOR   YOUNG   MEN.  123 

Cau  it  be  a  wonder  to  any,  that  the  young  man  is  an  object  of  in- 
terest to  all,  and  especially  that  the  intensest  concern  should  be  felt 
by  those  to  whom  belongs  the  responsibility  of  the  present,  whose 
duty  it  Is  to  prepare  him,  as  far  as  education  and  example  can  do  it, 
for  the  progress  of  society,  of  the  church,  and  of  the  nation  ?  The 
question,  "Wherewithal  shall  a  young  man  cleanse  his  way?"  is 
therefore  for  them,  as  well  as  for  him. 

2.  The  import  of  the  question  : 

It  implies  the  impurity  of  his  way,  otherwise  there  could  be  no 
propriety  in  the  language  employed ;  for  why  ask  how  that  shall  be 
cleansed,  which  is  already  pure  ? 

True,  if  we  go  back  over  all  his  way,  from  its  beginning,  we  find 
him  with  Innocence  for  his  companion,  shedding  her  smile  of  com- 
placence upon  him,  blessing  him  with  her  favor,  in  his  every  step 
through  infancy.  On  to  the  end  of  this  period,  all  is  well,  both  as 
it  respects  character  hei'e  and  destiny  hereafter.  Innocence  takes 
care  of  both,  and  they  are  safe  in  her  keeping.  But  grown  to  youth, 
he  quits  the  flowery  domain  over  which  she  presides.  He  may  not 
tarry  if  he  would — he  would  not  if  he  could.  He  seeks  in  Education 
a  wiser  guide.  He  tastes  in  her  school  of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge 
of  good  and  evil.  His  eyes  are  opened,  and  he  discerns  that  in  the 
journey  before  him  there  are  two  ways,  the  right  and  the  wrong. 
Unhesitatingly  he  approves  the  former,  but,  from  the  moral  state  of 
his  nature,  and  the  action  of  Temptation  upon  it,  he  pursues  the  latter. 
No  sooner  is  the  line  between  childhood  and  youth  past,  than  the 
way  of  impurity  is  entered  upon.  That  the  steps  of  youth  may  be 
so  guided,  by  mere  moral  training,  as  always  to  keep  the  sinless  path 
along  which  Innocence  guided  infancy,  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  very 
great  heresy,  since  its  direct  efi'ect  would  be  to  prevent  that  convic- 
tion of  depravity  which  is  the  preparation  to  the  work  of  cleansing 
the  young  man's  way. 

I  would  not,  on  any  account,  disparage  Education.  I  look  upon 
her  as  an  angel  from  heaven,  as  from  her  seat  of  learning  she  dis- 
penses the  treasures  of  wisdom,  and  seeks,  by  her  many  appeals  to 
reason,  to  guide  the  youthful  step  in  the  way  of  purity.  I  admit, 
and  do  it  gladly,  to  her  praise,  that  she  has  done  much  to  restrain 
the  evil  of  youthful  nature ;  but  ask  me  not  to  consent  that  she  cau 
eradicate  it.  I  might  agree  with  those  who  say  she  can,  if  Tempta- 
tion were  not  more  potent  than  Education  in  its  sway  over  human 


124  A   QUESTION   AND   ITS   ANSWER, 

nature.  There  is  a  power  for  evil  in  Temptation,  wliich  no  moral 
training  has  ever  yet  overcome.  But  if  we  were  to  suppose  these 
two  great  powers  rivals  in  the  contest  for  mastery  over  the  young 
man — the  one  always  for  good,  the  other  always  for  evil,  but  the  one 
often  betrays  her  trust,  the  other  never — such  is  the  advantage 
which  Temptation  has  over  Education,  in  the  moral  state  of  our  na- 
ture, as  to  insure  invariably  her  success. 

A  mere  glance  at  the  proof  of  the  inhei-ent  impurity  of  humanity, 
which  is  the  barrier  to  the  success  of  Education,  is  all  that  the  limited 
discussion  to  which  I  am  restricted  will  allow.  And  since  God's 
Word  is  the  rule  by  which  the  young  man  is  to  cleanse  his  way, 
that  Word  is  sufficient  authority  for  the  existence  of  that  impu- 
rity. "  Behold,  I  was  shapen  in  iniquity,  and  in  sin  did  my  mother 
conceive  me."  Such  is  the  style  of  teaching  in  the  Old  Testament. 
Turn  over  to  the  New,  and  its  corroboration  is  furnished  by  Christ, 
when  He  said  to  Nicodemus,  "  That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh'  is 
flesh.  Except  a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  Kingdom  of 
God."  Here  is  the  same  impurity  of  nature  with  which,  according 
to  the  Psalmist,  we  are  born,  and  the  nature  of  the  change  that  must 
be  effected  in  cleansing  us  from  it.  I  imagine  that  all  who  take  the 
pains  to  read  these  pages  are  sufficiently  acquainted  with  their  Bibles 
to  know  that'  such  proofs  as  the  foregoing  might  be  multiplied 
almost  indefinitely. 

The  impurity  of  our  nature  is  not  only  established  by  the  authority 
of  the  Word  of  God,  but  also  by  the  facts  in  the  history  of  the  human 
race,  and  by  the  experience  of  every  human  being.  In  this  state 
of  the  case,  it  is  easy  to  see,  as  I  have  held,  the  advantage  of  Tempta- 
tion over  Education,  and  why,  despite  of  all  the  efforts  the  latter  may 
make,  the  former  succeeds  in  sending  the  young  man  along  the  ways 
of  impurity. 

■  If  the  case  were  reversed,  and  our  nature  were  pure,  then  Educa- 
tion might  carry  on  the  contest  on  equal  grounds  with  Temptation. 
Then  it  might  be  admitted  that  from  infancy  forward  ^hrough  youth, 
and  on  to  the  end  of  the  journey,  our  way  might  possibly  never  stand 
in  need  of  cleansing.  But  the  opposite  being  the  fact,  nature  harmo- 
nizing with  Temptation,  "  all  have  gone  out  of  the  way  " — "  there  is 
none  righteous ;  no,  not  oae." 

The  young  man's  way,  then,  is  corrupt.  First,  because  of  the 
depraved  state  of  his  nature.     Secondly,  because,  in  this  condition 


FOR   YOUNG   MEN.  125 

of  his  nature,  Temptation  to  evil  is  more  powerful  than  the  best  in- 
centives to  good  which  Education  can  urge.  The  latter  may  furnish 
theories  which  claim  the  approval  of  his  mind ;  the  former  can  offer 
indulgences  which  gratify  the  feelings  of  the  heart.  The  restraints 
of  the  one  are  despised  for  the  gratifications  of  the  other. 

But  the  argument  by  which  I  have  maintained  the  corruption  of 
the  young  man's  way  applies  alike  to  all  who,  heeding  not  the  coun- 
sel of  the  text,  have  failed  to  cleanse  their  way,  according  to  God's 
Word.  For  the  nature  of  all  is  depraved,  and  over  this  nature,  un- 
renewed, Temptation  holds  despotic  sway.  I  now  proceed  to  remark, 
that  to  insure  the  corruption  of  the  young  man's  way,  there  are 
temptations  ^ecw?jar  to  youth,  luring  him  into  the  ways  of  impurity. 

Never  were  there  two  friends  of  closer  intimacy  than  Temptation 
and  Vice.  They  are  business  associates,  and  partners  that  never 
quaiTcl.  They  have  more  places  of  commerce  than  any  other  firm 
in  the  world,  and  offer  more  inducements  to  customers  than  all 
others  put  together.  Especial  pains  are  taken  to  please  the  fancy 
and  suit  the  taste  of  the  young.  If  once  they  have  gained  the  cus- 
tom of  the  old,  habit  makes  them  sure  of  their  patronage.  Of  these 
partners,  Temptation's  office  is  to  lure  the  victim  to  the  place  of  trade, 
where  Vice  presides. 

1.  Pleasure  may  be  set  down  as  among  the  most  successful  agencies 
by  which  Temptation  corrupts  the  young  man's  way.  The  love  of  it 
is  strong  in  his  nature,  and  its  indulgence,  under  proper  restraints, 
is  allowable.  But  it  is  the  policy  of  Temptation  to  take  advantage 
of  what  may  be  right  in  itself,  to  lead  astray  the  victim  it  has  marked 
for  crime.  Note  how  through  the  young  man's  natural  love  of 
pleasure  she  lures  him  in  the  ways  of  vice. 

Where  is  pleasure  to  be  found  ?  Temptation  has  as  many  answers 
as  there  are  questioners.  She  suggests  place  after  place  of  vice, 
which  promises  the  gratification  of  every  variety  of  taste.  The  ele- 
gantly decorated  hall,  where  assemble  the  giddy  throng  of  fashion's 
worshippers,  she  calls  the  temple  of  innocent  amusement.  Through 
his  card  of  invitation,  she  exacts  his  promise  for  the  evening.  He 
joins  in  his  first  dance ;  or  he  is  entertained,  for  the  first  time,  with 
the  comic  or  the  tragic  of  the  Theatre  ;  and  he  feels,  blinded  by  the 
one  and  gratified  by  the  other,  that  Temptation  did  not  promise  more 
than  Vice  has  fulfilled ;  and  now.  Temptation,  if  her  delusive  spell  be 
not  broken,  leads  him  on  from  one  place  of  innocent  amusement, 


126  A   QUESTION  AND   ITS   ANSWER, 

falsely  so  called,  to  anotlier,  till  you  find  him  the  companion  of  the 
worst  in  crime. 

The  appetite  which  he  acquired  for  strong  drink  in  the  circles 
where  he  sought  pleasure  in  amusement,  now  claims  his  unrestrained 
indulgence,  and  he  is  a  drunkard.  The  excitement  which  he  found 
in  the  game  of  chance  for  social  pastime,  has  relieved  gaming  of  the 
enormity  with  which  he  had  been  accustomed  to  invest  it,  and  he  is 
a  gambler.  Continuing  his  negotiations  with  Temptation,  thus  ou 
he  goes,  till  he  becomes,  not  only  the  inmate  of  all  the  haunts  of  Vice, 
but  the  accomplice  in,  and  perpetrator  of,  all  its  deeds ;  as  "corrupt 
in  his  way  as  any  convict  who  has  ever  paid  the  penalty  of  his  crimes 
in  a  penitentiary  or  upon  a  gallows. 

2.  Vanity  is  another  of  the  successful  agencies  through  which 
Temptation  corrupts  the  young  man's  way. 

Unless  he  is  a  youth  of  understanding  beyond  his  years,  vanity  is 
excited  often  by  the  interest  he  sees  felt  for  him,  while  he  is  pre- 
paring for  the  part  he  is  to  perform  in  the  drama  of  life.  Here 
lies  the  danger,  in  the  case  of  the  young  man  whose  native  talent 
gives  early  promise  of  usefulness  and  distinction  in  the  world.  He 
is  made  conscious  of  superior  -capacity  by  his  teacher  at  school  or 
by  his  parents  at  home.  This  consciousness  is  renewed  from  time  to 
time,  and  in  various  ways,  by  his  contact  with  society.  Temptation, 
seeking  to  entrap  and  ruin  him,  kindles  out  of  it  the  vanity  which 
consumes  all  his  splendid  promise;  and  so  far  from  meeting  exi^ecta- 
tion,  he  is  -flattered  into  a  self-assumed  consequence  which  makes 
him  an  object  of  disgust  to  the  society  over  which  he  is  ambitious 
to  obtain  sway. 

•  But  vanity,  like  pleasure,  has  many  tracks,  over  which  by  the  aid 
of  Temptation  she  guides  the  erring  footsteps  of  the  young  man. 
One  makes  his  boast  of  family — another  of  position — another  of  ap- 
pearance. Vanity  in  all  its  forms,  by  the  help  of  Temptation,  has  a 
miserable  end  for  its  victim. 

3.  Honor,  higher  in  grade  than  pleasure  or  vanity,  is  another 
agent  by  which  Temptation  corrupts  the  young  man's  way. 

His  honor  is  more  than  his  life— is  more  than  the  life  of  his  fellow. 
To  him  it  is  the  "  higher  law  "—in  a  more  criminal  sense  than  any 
"higher  law"  known  to  *  politics— higher  than  his  county  s  law, 
higher  than  God's  law.  Obeying  the  behest  of  this  law,  how  terrible 
are  the  deeds  written  in  humanity's  history! 


FOR  YOUNG  MEN.  127 

The  young  man  of  accomplished  education  and  well-furnished 
4iind,  who  cannot  stoop  so  low  as  to  reach  down  to  a  mean  action,  is 
ivell  deserving  the  admiration  of  all.  But  just  here  the  nobleness 
of  his  character,  and  the  estimate  in  which  he  is  held  on  this  ac- 
count, is  the  point  at  which  Temptation  directs  her  battery.  As  he 
would  not  do  a  mean  action,  she  would  compromise  his  honor  if  he 
did  not  resent  insult.  Sadly  misguided,  he  gives  or  accepts  the 
challenge  to  mortal  combat,  in  which,  at  the  crack  of  the  rifle,  is  ex- 
tinguished a  light  which,  had  it  gained  its  zenith,  might  have  shone 
in  the  galaxy  of  great  men,  with  a  lustre  scarce  inferior  to  that  of 
Calhoun,  or  Clay,  or  Webster.  Hamilton  and  Decatur  both  fell  by 
the  bloody  hands  of  duellist  murderers  while  yet  comparatively  young 
men. 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  power  which,  through  these  and 
oilier  agencies,  Temptation  sways  over  the  young  man.  Appeal  is 
made  to  every  impulse  of  his  ardent  nature,  and  with  such  success 
that  in  many  sad  instances  the  youth  of  even  pious  education  and 
early  virtue  has  become  desperate  in  vice,  reckless  of  the  laws  of  Grod 
and  man,  a  fit  subject  for  the  penalty  of  both. 

But  the  question,  "  Wherewithal  shall  a  young  man  cleanse  his 
way  ? "  as  it  implies  the  fact  that  his  way  is  corrupt,  applies  also  to 
the  young  man  whom  neither  pleasure,  vanity,  nor  honor,  has  led 
astray,  and  who  may  have  avoided  the  temptations  most  common  and 
most  fatal  to  the  morality  of  youth.  He  may  never  have  polluted  his 
lips  with  profanity.  He  may  never  have  inflamed  his  spirit  with  wine. 
He  may  never  have  kindled  the  fire  of  passion  with  the  fuel  of  im- 
pure or  revengeful  thoughts.  Yet  since,  as  we  have  seen,  his  nature 
is  corrupt,  that  nature  develops  only  by  corrupt  ways  of  thought,  or 
feeling,  or  action.  For  him,  as  well  as  the  young  man  of  riot  and 
crime,  the  question  is  submitted,  "  Wherewithal  shall  a  young  man 
cleanse  his  way  ?  " 

II.  The  second  part  of  the  text  shall  now  claim  attention,  namely, 
the  Answer  to  the  Question — "  By  taking  heed  thereto  according  to 
Thy  Word." 

Here  is  a  general  and  specific  direction. 

1.  "By  taking  heed  thereto."  To  heed  is  to  think.  That  think- 
ing which  implies  earnest  inquiry  into  what  is  right  or  wrong,  and 
which  awakens  desire  of  the  one,  with  the  purpose  to  pursue  it — 
apprehension  of  the  other,  with  the  purpose  to  avoid  it. 


128  A   QUESTION  AND   ITS  ANSWER, 

Inconsideration  is  one  of  the  greatest  faults  of  youth.  It  is  the 
door  by  which  Temptation  is  admitted,  in  gaining  the  ear  of  youthful 
desire  for  sinful  indulgence.  In  his  haste,  the  young  man  does  not 
stop  to  think. 

How  much  would  be  different  in  every  man's  life,  if  he  had  only 
thought  before  he  spoke,  and  reflected  before  he  acted !  And  could 
youth  know  without  experience  the  consequences  of  heedlessness: — 
consequences  which  embitter  maturity  and  age — the  indiscretions 
and  crimes  which  so  often  mar  and  stain  this  period  in  life's  journey 
would  be  avoided.  But,  alas !  the  experience  which  teaches  the 
father  the  follies  of  his  youth  conveys  not  its  lessons  to  his  son. 

There  is  a  vast  difference  between  the  seeming  and  the  real  of 
things.  The  former  beguiles;  the  latter  punishes.  "There  is  a 
way  which  seemeth  right  unto  a  man,  but  the  end  thereof  are  the 
ways  of  death."  Experience  teaches  the  old  man  to  distrust  the 
seeming,  and  to  fear  the  real.  Had  he  taken  heed,  he  might  have 
detected  what  was  only  seeming,  and  avoided  the  real,  with  which 
he  is  punished,  in  painful  remembrance  of  the  sins  of  his  youth.  Too 
late  he  learns  from  the  pangs  of  sorrow  and  remorse — lessons  taught 
in  the  school  of  experience — to  distrust  the  seeming  of  things.  The 
old  man,  remembering,  can  but  exclaim.  Oh,  that  the  young  man 
would  think  ! 

•  Heeding,  the  young  man  would  at  once  realize  a  consciousness  of 
his  evil  way — the  evil  of  his  nature  inherited,  and  the  evil  of  his  prac- 
tice commenced  in  his  very  first  step  after  crossing  the  line  of  account- 
ability. But  however  much  he  might  take  heed  to  his  way  by  thought 
and  investigation  of  the  principles  of  right  and  wrong,  and  by  action 
corresponding  in  as  full  a  measure  as  possible  to  his  convictions  and 
conclusions,  how  earnestly  soever  he  might  endeavor  to  pursue  the 
right  and  avoid  the  wrong,  as  the  means  of  cleansing  and  keeping 
pure  his  way,  he  must  fail  utterly,  if  he  overlook  the  second  part  of 
the  answer  to  the  question.  And  now  we  come  to  the  specific  direc- 
tion contained  in  the  text. 

2.  "  According  to  Thy  Word." 

.This  is  the  standard  that  must  rule  his  thinking  and  acting,  if  in- 
deed he  would  cleanse  his  way.  God's  Word  is  the  only  guide  to 
the  path  of  purity— the  t^ue  rule  of  faith  and  practice. 

First  of  all,  then,  acquaintance  with  God's  Word  is  of  the  highest 
moment,  and  young  men  cannot  be  too  thoroughly  impressed  with 


FOR  YOUNG   MEN.  129 

the  importance  of  its  study.  Wisdom  xinto  salvation  is  the  lesson  it 
teaches.  I  am  iu  want  of  terms  strong  enough  to  express  the  com- 
mendation due  to  Education,  through  the  agencies  she  employs  to 
impart  to  the  youthful  mind  a  knowledge  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
Not  that  Education,  through  the  instruction  she  furnishes  by  her 
best  agencies,  including  the  Sabbath-school  and  Christian  associations 
of  young  men,  and  even  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  can  cleanse  a 
man's  way,  but  the  instruction  she  thus  imparts  is  the  very  best 
preparation  of  the  soul  for  the  action  of  the  only  cleansing  power. 
She  is  the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness,  "  Prepare  ye  the 
way  of  the  Lord." 

A  servant  must  know  his  master's  will  before  understandingly  he 
can  do  it;  and  as  knowledge  is  not  intuitive,  but  acquired,  he  must 
gain  it  by  instruction  or  study ;  and  the  more  direct  the  source  of 
his  information,  the  clearer  will  be  his  conviction  of  duty,  and  the 
more  confident  will  he  be  of  approbation  in  its  performance.  I  do 
not,  however,  say  that  knowledge  of  God's  Word  is  absolutely  de- 
pendent upon  direct  access  to  its  pages.  This  would  be  to  say  that 
a  large  part  of  our  Roman  Catholic  and  slave  population  are  shut  up  in 
total  ignorance — the  former  not  being  permitted  to  read  it,  except 
within  such  limits  as  proscribe  it  to  the  masses ;  the  latter,  making 
but  few  exceptions,  not  being  able  to  read  it.  No  one  doubts  the 
statement  in  regard  to  the  latter.  If  that  in  reference  to  the  former 
be  denied  by  the  Catholic,  or  questioned  by  the  Protestant,  I  refer 
for  its  proof,  in  the  first  place,  to  the  action  of  the  Council  of  Trent. 
In  the  second  place,  to  the  fact,  that  everywhere  throughout  our 
country,  where  Pioman  Catholic  influence  is  felt,  there  is  outspoken 
opposition  to  the  Bible  in  the  public  schools.  And  thirdly,  to  the 
very  significant  fact  that  it  is  excluded  from  the  Sabbath  schools  of 
said  church,  and  from  all  the  schools  of  literature  under  its  patron- 
age. 

As  the  means  of  instruction  to  our  youth,  that  our  young  men  may 
take  it  as  the  guide  of  their  way,  let  the  Bible,  God's  blessed  Word, 
go  into  all  the  schools,  public  and  private,  in  the  land ;  let  it  go  into 
every  family,  that  its  morning  and  evening  lessons  may  form  a  part 
of  the  devotions  of  the  domestic  altar ;  let  it  thus  lodge  its  purifying 
truths  in  the  hearts  of  our  children,  "  that  our  sous  may  be  as  plants 
grown  up  in  their  youth,  that  our  daughters  may  be  corner-stones, 
polished  after  the  similitude  of  a  palace." 

a 


130  A   QUESTION   AND   ITS   ANSWER, 

"  What  would  be  the  condition  of  any  one  of  us,"  said  Daniel  "VTeb- 
ster  on  his  dying  bed,  "without  the  hope  of  immortality,  and  what  is 
there  to  rest  that  hope  upon  but  the  Gospel  ?  "  Take  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  away  from  us — deny  us  all  access  to  the  Word  of  God — and 
the  light  that  cheered  the  soul  of  the  great  statesman  on  the  eve  of 
its  exit  to  eternity  would  be  extinguished,  and  a  darkness  more 
dense  than  covered  Egypt,  when  plagued  by  the  judgments  of 
Heaven,  would  veil  the  face  of  the  moral  firmament  now  lit  up  with 
the  glorious  sun  of  Gospel  truth.  Whatever  else  may  be  learned 
from  other  sources — and  science,  philosophy,  and  history,  are  almost 
exhaustless  fountains — the  Bible  alone  can  furnish  the  certain  knowl- 
edge of  immortality,  and  point  the  way  to  its  untold  joys.  It  alone 
contains  the  lesson  of  wisdom  unto  salvation,  teaching,  as  it  does,  the 
process  of  cleansing  by  which  the  young  man's  way  is  made  pure. 

«  According  to  Thy  Word." 

Two  questions  naturally  arise.  What  does  God's  Word  teach? 
What  does  it  require  in  cleansing  the  young  man's  way  ? 

1.  What  does  it  teach  ? 

The  primary  is  the  most  important  lesson  in  every  branch  of  knowl- 
edge. A  teacher  would  never  make  a  scholar  of  his  pupil,  if  he  did 
not  begin  with  the  alphabet.  First  principles  are  interwoven  through 
every  part  of  subsequent  attainment.  The  great  problem  for  the 
Study  of  the  young  man,  who  would  cleanse  his  way,  is  himself;  the 
first  lesson  in  its  solution  is  the  impurity  of  his  moral  state.  Him- 
self the  subject,  his  sinful  nature  the  alphabet,  God's  Word  the 
teacher.  "Know  thyself"  was  the  wisest  maxim  of  the  old  philos- 
ophers ;  but  the  teacher  was  wanting  to  explain  the  alphabet,  and 
instruct  them  in  the  first  principles  of  self-knowledge ;  they  had  not 
God's  Word. 

I  will  add  nothing  to  the  proof  of  the  depraved  moral  state  of  hu- 
manity submitted,  in  maintaining  the  corruption  of  the  young  man's 
way.  Starting  with  this  primary  principle,  to  the  truth  of  which 
his  consciousness  responds,  resist  it  as  he  may,  he  realizes  the  fact 
that  his  way  is  impure,  and  needs  cleansing — in  short,  that  he  is  a 
sinner,  guilty  before  God,  and  deserving  hell. 

The  second  lesson  which  God's  Word  teaches,  is,  that  though  a 
sinner,  he  has  a  Savioux,  great  and  glorious,  even  Jesus,  who,  to 
save  him,  invested  Divinity  in  flesh ;  and  in  that  flesh,  in  due  time, 
when  -we  were  without  strength,  died  for  the  ungodly— a  Saviour 


FOR  YOUNG  MEN.  131 

"  who,  by  the  shedding  of  His  blood,  opened  the  fountain  for  the 
cleansing  of  his  depraved  nature,  and  who  by  His  precepts  marked 
out  for  him  the  way  of  purity,  and  by  His  example  showed  him  how 
to  walk  in  it. 

Such  are  the  preparatory  lessons  the  young  man  must  learn,  if  he 
would  cleanse  his  way,  according  to  God's  Word.  First,  that  he  is 
a  sinner ;  secondly,  that  he  has  a  Saviour.  They  are  not  merely  les- 
sons for  his  mental,  but  his  moral  nature — not  only  to  be  assented  to 
as  facts  furnished  by  the  revelation  of  Divine  truth,  but  as  facts 
that  are  to  penetrate  the  soul  with  conviction  and  hope. 

2.  And  now,  finally,  what  does  God's  Word  require  ? 

Plainly,  that  he  at  once  turn  from  the  way  of  impurity,  by  "  re- 
pentance toward  God,  and  faith  toward  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 
Repentance  and  faith  succeed  the  conviction  that  he  is  a  sinner,  and 
the  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  he  has  a  Saviour.  Repentance  is  the 
heart's  sorrow  that  he  is  a  sinner ;  faith  is  the  heart's  trust  in  the 
Redeemer.  But  repentance  cannot  cleanse  his  way.  Faith  cannot 
do  it.  These  are  but  means  to  which  he  must  resort  in  having  it 
done,  and  it  cannot  be  done  without  them.  He  must  be  converted — 
by  which  I  mean  there  must  be  efiected  such  a  change  in  his  nature 
as  shall  prepare  him  for  the  succeeding  steps  of  obedience,  in  the 
way  of  purity.  Repentance  succeeds  conviction ;  faith  succeeds  re- 
pentance ;  conversion  succeeds  faith.  The  converting  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  reaches  the  heart,  and  renews  the  nature,  only  through 
faith  in  Christ.  God's  Word  requires,  in  cleansing  the  young  man's 
way,  his  repentance,  fb,ith,  conversion — not  one  or  the  other,  but  all. 
There  is  no  other  process  for  those  who,  having  God's  Word,  are 
made  conscious  that  they  are  sinners,  and  know  that  they  have  a 
Saviour;  and  of  those  who  have  not  God's  Word,  this  is  not  the  place 
to  speak.  Repentance  is  the  preparation  for  faith ;  faith  is  the  prep- 
aration for  conversion.  And  nothing  can  be  more  clear,  if  we  have 
not  exaggerated  the  depraved  condition  of  humanity,  than  that,  in 
order  to  moral  purity,  there  must  be  the  action  upon  the  heart  of 
the  regenerating  power  of  the  Divine  Spirit. 

There  are  many  powerful  motives  which  enforce  the  counsel  of  the 
text,  a  due  reflection  upon  which  would  make  the  young  man  wise 
unto  salvation.  I  select  only  two,  on  which,  in  conclusion,  I  make 
my  appeal  to  him  in  favor  of  the  period  of  youth  as  the  most  pro- 
pitious for  cleansing  his  way — namely,  Jiabit  ^and  happiness. 


132  A   QUESTION  AND  ITS  ANSWER, 

Try  it  wlieu  he  may,  it  will  be  found  no  easy  work ;  but  it  is  easier 
now  than  it  will  be  if  delayed  to  maturity  or  age.  He  may  master 
habit  now,  but  presently  habit  will  master  him.  No  doubt  of  it,  at 
all.  It  is  to  prove  the  great  auxiliary  to  him  in  the  way  he  goes, 
whether  it  be  virtue  or  vice,  purity  or  impurity.  Youth  is  the  period 
when  habit  is  planted  in  our  nature.  It  grows,  cultured  by  thought, 
feeling,  and  action,  till  it  becomes  the  tree  that  casts  its  shade,  re- 
freshing or  deadly,  over  the  whole  area  of  character. 

The  formation  of  habits  of  piety  in  youth  has  an  importance  which 
age  only  can  fully  appreciate.  If  the  young  man  would  know  the 
advantage  of  habits  of  early  piety,  let  him  go  and  talk  with  the  man — 
and  it  is  only  here  and  there  he  will  find  one — who,  in  his  riper  years 
or  advanced  age,  has  become  religious.  The  daily  struggles  he  has 
with  bad  habits  teach  liim,  too  late,  how  much  he  would  have  gained 
in  surmounting  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  a  pious  life,  had  he  in 
youth  "  cleansed  his  way  "  according  to  Grod's  "Word. 

But  I  rest  not  my  appeal  to  the  young  man  alone  on  the  argument 
from  the  force  of  habit,  which  I  have  barely  touched.  Besides  the 
help  he  may  gain  hereafter,  in  treading  the  way  of  purity,  from  the 
habit  of  piety  formed  while  young,  I  urge  the  liappiness  which  piety 
begun  in  youth  will  furnish  all  along  life's  pilgrimage,  and  at  its 
end. 

Happiness  is  the  good  after  which  our  restless  nature  pants. 
Everywhere  and  always,  and  in  all  things,  it  is  the  object  we  pursue. 
There  is,  after  all,  but  one  road  to  it.  That  is  the  way  cleansed  ac- 
cording to  God's  Word,  and  known  by  the  name  of  purity.  This  is 
the  path  of  the  just,  that  shineth  more  and  more  to  the  perfect  day. 
In  this  way,  we  cannot  go  without  Happiness  for  a  companion.  Here 
we  find  duty  j  we  perform  it,  and  are  happy.  Here  we  find  priv- 
ilege; we  improve  it,  and  are  happy.  Here  we  find  opportuni- 
ties of  usefulness ;  and  we  do  good,  and  are  happy.  Let  the  young 
man  know,  his  ardent  nature  panting  after  happiness,  that  in  the  way 
of  purity  he  will  always  find  duty,  privilege,  and  usefulness,  the 
springs  from  which  he  may  quench  his  thirst.  In  short,  purity  is 
the  essential  of  happiness ;  and  more,  purity  is  always  happy. 

And  then  the  end ;  as  he  shall  look  back  over  the  way  he  has  come, 
then,  when  those  wh(i  have  gone  by  the  way  of  impurity  shall  be 
most  unhappy,  he  will  be  most  happy.  The  memories  of  the  past 
will  be  as  the  dew  of  youth  upon  his  old  age,  and  at  four-score  the 


FOR   YOUNG   MEN.  133 

future  will  furnish  him  a  more  glorious  prospect  than  he  looked  upon 
from  the  Mount  of  Anticipation  at  twenty.  If  the  young  man  would 
make  his  old  age  happy,  his  end  triumphant,  and  his  future  glorious, 
he  has  only  to  hearken  to  the  counsel  of  the  text,  "  By  taking  heed 
to  his  way,  and  cleansing  it  according  to  God's  Word." 


THE  NEW  COMMANDMENT. 


'"'  ■'^^'  ''^"    ''    D., 

JBB,    MABTtAXD, 


•unded 


•  11  euuiuejuitiuu  oj  ti 
oJ,  though  dry  gel"  V; 
rror.atid  heresy,  it 
f-'uro  tokii' 


-    It 
■ritli- 


kke  loVe  at  once  the  motive  and  esscace  Gt  ail  piety. 


]{'  jQ  lovc  ;iii;.  keep  my  commandments." 
Our  text  is  a  remarkable  illustration  of  this  ♦'•nth. 
'  e  earth.     Upon  that  earth,  his  < 
'    ■  "'^v-nly  ti-iumph.     And,  •-^' 
-urch?     How  are 
>n  of  the  world  'i    1 


Je«n!?  is  ahovit 


.,?  t^ 


•y  could  4>ay,   •  ~ 


■  t  vanquish  al! 
i  them  to  . 
to  equi];; 
first  dis' 
■  K  guid  haT©  we  norn. ; " 


136  THE    NEW   COMMANDMENT. 

they  were  destitute  of  learning;  they  were  humble  and  despised;  nor 
did  they  ever  kill  or  wound  a  single  human  being,  though  constantly 
wronged,  insulted,  murdered.  The  power  with  which  the  Re- 
deemer arms  his  church — but  which  that  church  still  so  little  com- 
prehends— is  the  power  of  love.  All  wealth  and  honor  and  might 
were  his,  and  he  could  have  conferred  them  upon  his  subjects; 
but  he  bequeaths  to  them  a  richer  legacy,  a  more  resistless  potency. 
He  infuses  love  into  their  souls.  ''Love  one  another,"  he  says.  "A 
new  commandment  I  give  unto  you.  That  ye  love  one  jyaother.",  This 
is  the  sacrament  by  which  a  new  era  is  inaugurated  in  the.  history 
of  the  world ;  this  is  the  sign  by  which  the  cause  of  Jesus  shall  tri- 
umph, and  his  empire  be  established. 

"  That  ye  love  one  another."  Let  us  meditate  upon  this  great 
truth,  and  then  inquire  why  this  commandment  is  called  "  new."  "  A 
new  commandment  I  give  unto  you.  That  ye  love  one  another."  0 
Jesus,  uncreated,  eternal,  essential  Love !  incarnate,  bleeding,  dying 
Love  !  risen,  ascended,  glorified  Love !  let  thy  voice  be  heard  this 
day  in  our  hearts,  repeating  this  new  commandment;  let  thy  Spirit 
kindle  this  love  in  our  souls,  to  dwell  there  and  burn  there  with 
sacred,  inextinguishable  ardors. 

I.  This  valedictory  address  of  the  Redeemer,  these  farewell  in- 
structions to  his  disciples,  are  full  of  significancy,  and  deserve  our 
most  careful  study.  What  oceans  of  ink,  what  rivers  of  blood,  have 
been  shed  about  the  True  Cliurch.  Now,  surely,  if  salvation  depends 
on  our  being  within  the  pale  of  some  hallowed  enclosure,  on  the  ob- 
servance of  certain  forms  and  rites,  Jesus  would,  in  these  final  in- 
junctions, have  accurately  defined  this  consecrated  area;  he  would 
have  described  this  indispensable  machinery.  But  we  hear  from 
his  lips  not  a  syllable  on  these  subjects.  He  has  taught  us  all  things 
pertaining  to  eternal  life,  and  he  has  given  us  a  programme  of  the 
last  judgment;  but  neither  in  his  discourses,  nor  in  his  admonitions 
as  to  the  great  Assizes,  nor  in  the  inspired  teachings  of  his  apostles, 
do  we  find  one  word  about  the  mystical  virtues  of  churches  and  sacra- 
ments. I  do  not  undervalue  creeds  and  forms  and  ordinances,  but, 
after  all,  love  is  the  soul  of  all  creeds,  the  heart  of  all  forms,  the  life 
of  all  ordinances.  Without  love,  all  sacraments  and  rites  and  minis- 
tries are  ''sounding  brass  apd  tinkling  cymbals."  Where  two  or  three 
are  gathered  together  in  Christ's  name,  and  with  love  breathed  into 
their  souls,  there  Christ  is  in  the  midst  of  them,  there  is  a  true  church. 


THE  NEW   COMMANDMENT.  137 

My  brethren,  love  is  the  only  badge  by  which  the  church  of  Christ 
is  known.  "  By  this  shall  all  men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if 
ye  have  love  one  to  another."  Nations  have  their  escutcheons,  their 
crests,  and  ensigns;  armies  have  their  shields  and  banners;  and 
ftimilies  their  heraldry,  with  its  arms  and  quarters  and  bearings.  In 
the  da3's  of  Christ,  Jews  and  Gentiles  had  their  emblems,  different 
sects  and  schools  and  academies  being  distinguished  by  symbols,  de- 
vices, and  mottoes.  At  this  day,  churches  called  Christian  glory  in 
names  and  titles,  in  pomp  and  parade.  But  there  is  only  one  badge 
of  the  true  church  which  wi41  be  recognised  and  honored  by  "  all 
men."  That  badge  is  love.  "  The  banner  over  us  is  love."  A  so- 
ciety may  have  a  ministry  and  ordinances,  may  build  temples,  and 
observe  the  Sabbath,  and  do  many  virtuous  acts ;  but,  without  love, 
it  is  not  a  church  of  which  Christ  is  the  head,  and  its  members  his 
members.  "  He  that  loveth  is  born  of  God."  '^  By  this  shall  all 
men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye  have  love  one  to  another." 

Love  is  the  only  law  by  which  a  church  of  Christ  is  to  be  governed. 
Church  government — how  much  pride,  prejudice,  ambition,  selfish- 
ness, arrogance,  injustice,  cruelty — the  very  tempers  most  emphati- 
cally reprobated  by  the  Gospel — have  been  sanctified  by  this  phrase, 
staining  the  history  of  the  church,  so  miscalled,  with  the  darkest 
and  foulest  crimes  which  have  blackened  the  annals  of  our  race.  A 
king,  dabbling  with  astronomy,  once  said,  "  Had  I  been  present  when 
God  arranged  the  solar  system,  I  could  have  made  some  important 
suggestions."  So  vain  men  have  thought  as  to  the  Saviour's  regu- 
lation of  his  church,  and  they  have  sought  to  improve  his  system. 
But  he  knew  what  was  in  man.  Under  his  own  eye,  and  on  more 
than  one  occasion,  his  apostles  betrayed  spiritual  ambition,  in- 
quiring, "  Who  should  be  greatest  ?  "  and  you  remember  his  answer. 
Had  he  indoctrinated  them  in  the  arts  of  exercising  dominion — of 
elevating  themselves  into  an  ecclesiastical  aristocracy — they  would 
have  been  apt  scholars.  All  men  are  geniuses  in  that  department  of 
learning  which  teaches  self-aggrandizement.  But  he  rebukes  their 
ambition,  setting  a  little  child  before  them,  and  pronouncing  him 
greatest  who  has  the  most  childlike  and  loving  spirit :  "  Ye  know 
that  the  princes  of  the  Gentiles  exercise  dominion  over  them,  and 
they  that  are  great  exercise  authority  upon  them ;  but  it  shall  not  be 
so  among  you ;  but  whosoever  will  be  great  among  you,  let  him  be 
your  minister ;  and  whosoever  will  be  chief  among  you,  let  him  be 


138  THE  NEW   COMMANDMENT. 

your  servant."  As  in  the  natural  world,  the  Creator  secures  order 
without  monotony,  by  forming  each  particle  of  matter  with  its  own 
peculiar  properties,  and  throwing  around  all  substances  the  law  of 
gravitation,  so  in  the  church  there  are  many  members  and  diversities 
of  o-ifts  and  tastes  and  characters,  but  the  law  of  love  binds  all  into 
one  harmonious  whole. 

I  know  it  would  be  unutterable  folly  to  dispense  with  the  vigorous 
and  rigorous  administration  of  laws  in  such  a  world  as  this ;  human 
society  would  soon  be  disorganized  and  plunged  in  wild  anarchy  and 
confusion,  were  its  members  left  to  be  controlled  by  love.  .If  any 
events  could  unite  men  together  as  brothers,  they  were  the  trials  and 
triumphs  of  the  American  Revolution.  Yet  scarcely  had  independ- 
ence been  achieved,  when  an  enemy  more  formidable  than  any  for- 
eign army  at  once  appeared,  and  intestine  strife  threatened  to  rend 
into  hostile  fragments  that  noble  Confederation.  It  was  at  this  crit- 
ical moment  that  General  Washington  made  a  remarlc,  showing  his 
calm  and  profound  wisdom.  Mr.  Lee  wrote,  urging  him  to  use  his 
great  influence  to  quell  a  tumult  in  Massachusetts.  "  You  talk  of 
influence" — this  is  the  reply — "but  influence  is  not  government, 
and  nothing  can  save  the  country  but  a  government.  For  this,  we 
have  no  common  Constitution." 

"  Influence  is  not  government ;  "  but  in  the  church,  influence  is  the 
best  government — the  influence  of  love.  While  Jesus  was  upon 
earth,  what  regulated  his  yoUng  church  ?  It  was  his  influence.  In- 
carnate love  was  the  incarnate  conscience  of  his  church.  And  now, 
love  is  the  only  arbiter  needed ;  love  will  settle  everything.  If  love 
reign  in  a  church,  it  will  almost  supersede  discipline. 

When,  from  the  internal  administration  of  the  church,  we  turn  to 
its  outward  work,  its  enterprise  upon  the  earth,  we  find  a  mission 
entirely  of  love.  It  is  this  which  makes  the  Gospel  the  religion 
suited  to  all  climes  and  all  ages.  It  is  the  code  of  love ;  it  deals  not 
with  cases,  but  with  principles ;  it  appeals  not  to  casuistry,  but  to 
the  heart.  Human  enactments,  executed  by  human  tribunals,  really 
have  in  them  no  moral  sanction  whatever ;  they  appeal  never  to  eon- 
science,  but  only  to  detected  facts ;  they  leave  the  depraved  passions 
to  grow  and  fester,  and  scowl  and  pounce  only  upon  their  outbreaks. 
The  Gospel  reaches  the  springs  and  sources  of  character,  and  seeks 
to  purify  them ;  it  nourishes  principles  of  love,  and  these  will  destroy 
selfishness,  and  thus  secure  universal  and  eternal  equity  in  all  things. 


THE   NEW   COMMANDMENT.  139 

"And. one  of  the  company  said  unto  him,  Master,  speak  to  my 
brother,  that  he  divide  the  inheritance  with  me.  And  he  said 
unto  him,  Man,  who  made  me  a  judge  or  a  divider  over  you  ?  And 
he  said  unto  them.  Take  heed  and  beware  of  covetousness."  Which 
of  the  brothers  was  wrong,  he  does  not  decide ;  but  he  exhibits  the 
principle  which  settles  this  and  all  similar  cases.  The  baneful  love  of 
money  was  the  cause  of  that  family  quarrel,  as  it  is  of  almost  all  family 
quarrels  now.  Let  this  vice  be  corrected,  and  the  disgrace  and  un- 
happiness  will  at  once  cease.  And  it  is  thus  the  Gospel  redresses 
all  the  evils  and  disorders  of  society.  It  assails  no  form  of  civil  gov- 
ernment, prescribing  a  better ;  but  it  enforces  principles  which  will 
transform  any  government  into  a  government  of  love.  It  does  not 
seek  to  break  up  social  and  domestic  relations,  but  it  infuses  a  spirit 
which  will  make  these  relations  ties  of  affection  and  happiness. 

I  will  only  add  one. other  remark  here.  It  is  love,  my  brethren, 
which  is  to  secure  the  perpetuity,  and  final  and  universal  triumph, 
of  the  church  of  Christ.  Force,  stratagem,  hereditary  prescriptive 
authority — these  are  the  foundations  on  which  earthly  kingdoms 
rest.  Had  Jesus  been  a  competitor  with  worldly  monarchs — had  he 
accepted  the  crown  offered  him,  and  employed  his  miraculous  power 
to  establish  a  temporal  empire,  his  throne,  like  that  of  the  Caesars, 
would  have  been  an  unsubstantial,  perishable  fabric.  But  he  founded 
his  empire  on  love;  and  as  God  alone  is  omnipotent,  because  he 
only  is  pure,  essential  Love,  so  it  is  certain  that  ''  the  gates  of  hell 
can  never  prevail "  against  a  church  which  embodies  the  love  of  God. 
Against  it  error  and  superstition  and  tyranny  will  set  themselves, 
and  for  a  time  its  progress  may  be  arrested ;  it  may  even  seem  to  be 
defeated ;  but  it  will  possess  the  earth,  "  as  the  waters  cover  the  face 
of  the  deep."  You  stand  upon  the  sea-shore  when  the  tide  is  in  its 
flood.  Wave  after  wave  rolls  up,  is  broken,  and  driven  back;  but 
the  ocean  is  thundering  in,  and  will  sweep  all  before  it. 

Crowded  as  was  the  life  of  Napoleon  with  the  manifestations  of 
genius,  nothing  ever  done  or  uttered  by  him  discloses  more  strikingly 
the  greatness  of  his  mind  than  those  profound  words  recorded  by 
Count  Montholon :  ''  I  know  men,  and  I  tell  you  that  Jesus  is  not 
a  man.  The  religion  of  Christ  is  a  mystery  which  subsists  by  its 
own  force,  and  proceeds  from  a  mind  which  is  not  a  human  mind. 
We  find  in  it  a  marked  individuality,  which  originated  a  train  of 
words  and  actions  unknown  before.    Jesus  borrowed  nothing  from 


140  THE   NEW   COMMANDMENT. 

our  knowledge.  He  was  not  a  philosopher,  for  his  proofs  were  mira- 
cles and  from  the  first  his  followers  worshipped  him.  Alexander, 
Csesar,  Charlemagne,  and  myself,  founded  empires ;  but  upon  what 
foundation  did  we  rear  the  creations  of  our  genius  ?  Upon  force. 
Jesus  Christ  alone  founded  an  empire  upon  love ;  and,  at  this  hour, 
multitudes  of  men  would  die  for  him.  I  die  before  my  time,  and 
my  body  will  be  given  back  to  the  earth,  to  become  food  for  worms. 
Such  is  the  fate  of  him  who  has  been  called  the  Great  Napoleon ! 
What  an  abyss  between  my  end  and  the  eternal  kingdom  of  Jesus 
Christ  which  is  proclaimed,  and  loved,  and  adored,  which  is  extend- 
ing over  the  whole  earth." 

It  is  a  significant  fact,  that  Jesus  left  behind  him  no  prescribed 
artificial  organization ;  yet  his  teachings  established  a  society  com- 
pacted by  ties  firmer,  more  indissoluble,  than  those  which  consolidate 
states  and  kingdoms.  Unlike  earthly  kings,  he  did  not  concern 
himself  about  a  successor;  nor,  like  human  teachers  and  philoso- 
phers, did  he  compose  volumes  containing  a  full  and  systematic  ex- 
hibition of  his  doctrines.  He  simply  taught  men  to  love.  This  was 
the  lesson  our  common  humanity  was  waiting  to  receive,  and  it  at 
once  penetrated  to  the  depths  of  our  nature.  Uttered  by  an  humble 
Hebrew  youth,  that  imperial  word,  "  Love,"  began  directly  and  irre- 
sistibly to  work  out  the  most  wonderful  changes.  Pride,  prejudice, 
lo'dged  and  rooted  superstitions,  were  soon  vanquished  by  it.  Thrones 
have  crumbled  and  dynasties  have  expired,  but  the  power  of  that 
word  hath  not  been  exhausted ;  it  is  inexhaustible ;  it  will  yet  sub- 
due and  renovate  this  fallen  world,  making  all  things  new,  creating 
a  new  earth,  and  a  new  heaven  bending  over  it. 

There  are  other  thoughts  which  I  ought  to  present  here,  but  I 
must  sacrifice  them.  I  ought  to  remind  you  that  love  is  the  glory, 
the  happiness,  the  perfection,  of  the  church  of  Christ.  Love  is 
greater  than  faith  and  hope,  not  only  because  it  is  more  enduring,  but 
because  it  comprehends  them  both ;  for  it  "  Jiopeth  all  things,  hellcv- 
eth  all  things."  It  hath  more  hope  than  hope  itself,  more  faith  than 
faith  itself  We  every  day  see  loving  hearts  hoping  against  hope, 
an-d  trusting  in  spite  of  the  basest  perfidiousness.  Love  indeed  is 
the  crowning  flower  in  which  all  the  Christian  graces  shall  expand 
and  bloom  in  eternity.  It  is  the  glory,  the  happiness,  the  perfection, 
of  the  church  triumphant.  The  highest  heaven  knows  nothing  more 
exalted  and  blessed  than  love.    It  is  folly  to  speak  of  knowledge. 


THE  NEW  COMMANDMENT.  141 

IVe  mistake  familiarity  for  knowledge,  or  we  would  confess  our  ig- 
norance of  everything.  We  think,  and  understand,  and  speak,  as 
children ;  and  when  "  that  which  is  perfect  is  come,"  these  pueril- 
ities shall  all  "  be  done  away  "—that  is,  what  we  call  knowledge 
will  not  be  perfected,  but  entirely  superseded,  as  so  much  imbecility 
and  nescience.  But  love  will  be  perfected  in  heaven.  "  Whether 
there  be  prophecies,  they  shall  foil ;  whether  there  be  tongues,  they 
shall  cease ;  whether  there  be  knowledge,  it  shall  vanish  away."  But 
"  Love  never  faileth."  The  perfection  of  love  is  the  beatific  glory 
of  heaven ;  and  to  be  "  made  perfect  in  love  "  is  to  anticipate  heaven 
while  we  are  upon  earth. 

While,  however,  I  must  omit  many  thoughts  upon  which  I  would 
delight  to  dwell — for  this  is  a  subject  very  dear  to  me — there  is  one 
question  which  I  must  put  before  leaving  this  topic.  I  must  ask 
each  of  you,  Do  you  belong  to  the  true  church  of  Christ  ?  Have  you 
this  love  for  his  people  ?  "  We  know  that  we  have  passed  from 
death  unto  life,  because  we  love  the  brethren; "  ^'  He  that  loveth  not 
his  brother,  abideth  in  death."  Ponder  these  solemn,  searching, 
stripping  words.  Do  not  speak  of  your  love  for  God.  ''  If  a  man 
say,  I  love  God,  and  hateth  his  brother,  he  is  a  liar."  You  love 
God;  you  are  zealous  and  liberal;  you  delight  in  prayer,  in  the 
bible,  the  sanctuary,  and  all  the  exercises  of  devotion.  Very  well. 
But  do  you  love  your  brother  ?  do  you  bear  with  his  infirmities  ?  do 
you  admire  his  excellences  ?  is  his  reputation  dear  'to  you  ?  are  you 
concerned  for  his  salvation  ? — "  But  he  has  so  many  imperfections 
and  faults."  What,  are  you  faultless,  then  ?  do  you  not  love  your- 
self, in  spite  of  conscious  imperfection  ?  do  you  not  expect  Jesus  to 
love  you  and  bear  with  you,  though  loaded  with  defects  ?  What  if 
God  should  condemn  you,  as  you  well  know  you  are  compelled  con- 
stantly to  condemn  yourself ! 

Lord,  many  a  time,  I  am  a-weary  quite 

Of  my  own  self,  my  sin,  my  vanity ; 
Yet  be  not  Thou — or  I  am  lost  outright — 
Weary  of  me. 

And  hate  against  myself  I  often  bear, 

And  enter  with  myself  in  fierce  debate. 
Take  Thou  no  part  against  myself,  nor  share 
In  that  just  hate. 


142  THE  NEW  COMMANDMENT. 

Best  friends  might  loathe  us,  if  what  things  perverse 

We  know  of  our  own  selves,  they  also  knew. 
Lord,  Holy  One,  if  Thou,  who  knowest  worse, 
Should'st  loathe  us  too. 

This  humbling  confession  of  the  poet,  is  it  not  yours  ?  And,  after 
this,  will  you  be  eagle-sighted  to  detect  blemishes  in  your  brother — 
motes  in  your  brother's  eye — and  plead  his  imperfections  as  a  reason 
for  not  loving  him  ?  Ah,  my  dear  hearer,  how  little  have  you  been 
in  the  school  of  Christ ;  what  a  stranger  are  you  to  th^rt  love  which 
he  taught,  and  which  his  whole  life  exemplified. 

II.  "  That  ye  love  one  another."  I  have  thus  spoken  of  this  part- 
ing injunction  of  the  Redeemer.  Of  this  heavenly  grace  we  know, 
alas !  little  but  the  name.  The  models  of  greatness  which  we  dream 
of  in  youth,  and  which  we  admire  in  mature  age,  are  they  not  men 
of  the  world,  leaders  in  the  world,  who  utterly  despise  this  precept? 
And  even  in  the  church,  our  eulogiums  of  this  love  are,  I  had  almost 
said,  epitaphs  upon  a  dead  virtue.  If  a  man  complies  with  some 
natural  impulses  of  humanity,  if  he  expends  some  small  sums  in 
alms,  he  is  regarded  as  a  charitable  man,  though  he  indulges  in 
calumny,  vindictiveness,  every  form  of  selfishness.  But  without 
love,  nothing  is  charity.  "  Though  I  bestow  all  my  goods  to  feed  - 
the  poor,  and  have  not  love,  it  profiteth  me  nothing."  If  a  man  con- 
tributes to  build  churches,  and  is  zealous  about  ceremonies  and  rites 
and  dogmas,  he  is  a  model  of  devotion,  though  he  be  ever  so  intol- 
erant and  bigoted.  But  without  love,  nothing  is  devotion.  "  Though 
I  give  my  body  to  be  burned,  and  have  not  love,  it  profiteth  me 
nothing."  In  our  remaining  article,  I  am  going  to  examine  what 
there  is  of  novelty  in  this  injunction.  For  Jesus  designates  this  pre- 
cept as  a  new  enactment.  "  A  new  commandment  I  give  unto  you, 
That  ye  love  one  another." 

Now,  at  first,  this  seems  strange;  for  to  love  others  was  an  old  com- 
mandment ;  it  pervades  the  Old  Testament,  and  Jesus  himself  gives 
it  as  an  epitome  of  the  second  table  of  the  decalogue./  How,  then, 
can  it  be  called  new  ?  This  is  a  question  which  has  excited  much 
discussion ;  in  fact,  however,  John,  who  records  the  text,  has  fur- 
nished its  explanation.  In  his  First  Epistle  he  says :  "  Brethren,  1 
write  no  new  commandmetit  unto  you,  but  an  old  commandment 
which  ye  had  from  the  beginning;  again  a  new  commandment  I 
write  unto  you,  which  thing  is  true  in  him  and  in  you ;  because  the 


THE  NEW   COMMANDMENT.  143 

darkness  is  past,  and  the  true  light  now  shinefh."  And  he  then  en- 
forces the  new  command  of  love  to  our  brother.  To  love,  then,  is  an 
old  commandment ;  but  now,  since  Christ  has  come  to  save  us,  it  is 
new,  because  a  light  is  thrown  upon  this  duty  which  presents  it  in 
aspects  and  with  motives  never  known  before. 

This  is  the  general  exposition  given  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  And  if 
you  require  me  to  go  into  detail,  and  to  specify  in  what  respects  this 
precept  is  new,  the  answer  is  easy.  For  it  is  manifest,  in  the  first 
place,  that,  under  the  Grospel,  this  commandment  appeals  to  a  new 
principle.  The  affection  here  required  is  not  what  the  world  calls 
friendship,  for  it  is  to  be  recognised  by  "  all  men  "  as  the  distinctive 
trait  of  a  disciple.  It  is  an  affection  springing  from  faith ;  hen^ce, 
"  Add  to  your  faith — brotherly  kindness."  It  is,  in  fact,  a  reverbe- 
ration of  our  love  to  God. 

I  will  explain  myself;  and,  for  this  purpose,  le't  me  ask  you  to 
consider  carefully  the  language  of  the  apostle :  "  He  that  loveth  not 
his  brother,  whom  he  hath  seen,  how  can  he  love  God,  whom  he  hath 
not  seen  ?  "  Does  not  this  reasoning  seem  to  you  very  illogical  ?  Is 
it  easier,  then,  to  love  a  man,  with  all  his  defects  before  me,  than  to 
love  the  blessed  God  ?  The  solution  of  this  difficulty  is  found  in  the 
nature  of  the  love  inculcated.  It  is  not  attachment  to  a  human  being 
for  his  natural  excellences,  but  complacency  in  the  image  of  God 
reflected  by  him.  If  this  likeness,  thus  brought  near  and  vividly  in 
contact  with  our  senses,  has  no  charm  for  us,  how  can  we  pretend  to 
love  God,  whose  character  we  can  only  dimly  apprehend  by  faith  ? 
"  Every  one  that  loveth  him  that  begat,  loveth  him  also  that  is  be- 
gotten of  him."  Now,  Jesus  has  made  a  new  revelation  of  the 
Father.  When  we  say  that  God  is  a  king,  we  speak  metaphorically; 
but  his  fatherhood  is  not  a  figure.  That  we  are  not  the  inhabitants 
of  a  forlorn,  forsaken,  fatherless  world — that  God  sustains  to  us  rela- 
tions infinitely  more  tender  and  enduring  than  those  between  us  and 
the  parents  from  whom  have  sprung  only  our  bodies — this  is  a  glo- 
rious, strengthening,  rejoicing  truth.  It  is,  however,  a  truth  which 
patriarch  and  prophet  never  reached.  Among  the  proofs  of  deprav- 
ity which  everywhere  met  his  eye,  none  seems  to  have  affected  the 
Saviour  more  than  this  ignorance.  He  saw  the  world  living  as  if 
the  fatherhood  of  God  were  a  falsehood.  Hence  that  melancholy 
exclamation, "  0  righteous  Father!  the  world  hath  not  known  thee;" 
and  hence  his  constant  anxiety  to  elevate  the  minds  and  hearts  of 


144  THE  NEW  COMMANDMENT. 

his  disciples  to  this  great  truth.  Jesus  revealed  the  Father;  and 
what  a  revelation  !  "  Grod  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish, 
but  have  everlasting  life."  Such  a  manifestation  not  only  sheds 
amazing  glory  on  our  race,  but  binds  us  together  by  the  dearest 
brotherhood.  The  old  commandment  was  written  on  stone ;  but  it 
becomes  new,  because  it  is  now  engraved  upon  the  heart  by  rays 
which  come  directly  from  the  love  of  God  as  it  shines  in  the  face  of 
Jesus. 

This  first  remark  suggests  a  second.  If  this  love  to  our  brethren 
be  an  emanation  and  reflection  of  our  love  to  God,  it  will,  of  course, 
embrace  all  who  are  the  children  of  God ;  and  the  commandment  is 
therefore  new,  not  only  in  its  principle,  but  in  its  extent. 

It  is  a  fearful  observation  of  Hezel,  but  too  true,  that  "  To  nothing 
is  man  more  inclined  than  to  the  hatred  of  man."  What  an  appal- 
ling lesson  in  those  words  of  the  apostle,  "  This  is  the  message 
which  ye  had  from  the  beginning,  that  ye  should  love  one  another. 
Not  as  Cain,  who  was  of  that  wicked  one,  and  slew  his  brother." 
That  is  to  say,  the  want  of  love  is  secret  hatred,  and  this  hatred  only 
waits  for  provocation  to  commit  murder.  Indeed,  "  He  that  hatcth 
his  brother  is  a  murderer."  Even  in  the  Old  Testament,  love  was 
limited,  partial,  selfish.  There,  it  is  "  My  God  J'  Jesus  first  taught 
us  to  say  "  Our  Father,"  thus  abolishing  all  exclusiveness,  and  estab- 
lishing a  new  and  heavenly  union  among  all  the  children  of  God- 

My  brethren,  this  is  a  sublime  truth.  I  know  not  how  it  affects 
you,  but  the  more  I  revolve  it,  the  more  intensely  am  I  conscious 
that  Jesus  was  more  than  man.  Consider  who  he  was,  if  he  pos- 
sessed not  the  divinity  he  claimed ;  he  was,  then,  only  a  poor,  ob- 
scure, unlearned  youth,  and  that  youth  a  Hebrew.  How  impossible 
for  him  not  to  imbibe  the  prejudices  of  his  nation,  which  caused 
them  to  shrink  from  all  contact  with  other  people  as  defiling.  When 
I  recollect  the  age  in  which  Jesus  appeared,  and  the  nation  from 
which  he  sprang,  and  then  hear  him  revealing  this  doctrine — a 
doctrine  which,  even  at  this  day,  after  eighteen  hundred  years,  is 
still  new  and  unintelligible  to  most  Christians — I  confess  I  feel  a 
conviction,  which  I  cannot  express,  of  his  immeasurable  elevation 
above  humanity.  And  I  feel,  too,  that  the  bonds  in  which  the  Gos- 
pel unites  liis  followers  are  new  bonds,  comprehending  all  in  one 
new  body;  that  in  him  there  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  there  is 


THE   NEW  COMMANDMENT.  145 

neither  bond  nor  free,  there  is  neither  male  nor  female,"  there  is 
neither  rich  nor  poor,  honored  nor  obscure,  alien  nor  kindred, 
stranger  nor  friend ;  but  "  all  are  one  in  Christ  Jesus."  All  other 
ties  and  relations  are  subordinated  to  this  I'e-ligion — this  new  spir- 
itual affinity,  which  re-hinds  us  to  Christ  and  to  each  other. 

"The  Son  of  Man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost." 
Separated  from  God,  men  are  walled  off  from  each  other  by  selfish 
and  hostile  distinctions.  To  repair  these  unnatural  breaches,  the 
"  Son  of  God  "  became  "  Son  of  Man  " — not  of  any  particular  man, 
but  of  humanity.  He  thus  put  himself  in  communication  with  our 
common  nature,  that  he  might  attract  us  all  to  God,  and  unite  us  all 
to  one  another  by  new  and  heavenly  ties.  Those  who  have  learned 
of  Jesus  will  rejoice  in  the  spiritual  equality  of  all  who  are  in  him. 
As  applied  to  any  of  them,  the  term  "  lower  orders,"  too  often  heard 
in  the  church  and  pulpit,  is  a  direct  insult  to  the  Redeemer.  When, 
where,  did  the  carpenter's  son  ever  use  or  teach  such  an  epithet  ? 

And  this  brings  us  to  a  third  novelty  in  this  command  of  the 
Saviour.  I  mean  its  spirituality.  The  love  mentioned  in  our  text  is 
affection,  not  only  for  the  bodies,  but  for  the  souls  of  our  brethren. 

If  it  be  a  grand  truth  that  Jesus  came  to  reveal  the  Father  to  man, 
it  is  another  grand  truth,  that  he  came  to  reveal  man  to  himself. 
You  all  know  the  effect  of  familiarity  in  dulling  our  sensibilities,  so 
that  the  orb  of  day,  in  his  noontide  glory,  attracts  less  attention  than 
the  blaze  of  a  meteor  or  the  glare  of  a  rocket.  But  for  this  deaden- 
ing influence  of  familiarity,  we  would  at  once  be  struck  with  the 
startling  originality  of  Christ's  teachings  as  to  the  soul  of  man.  That 
our  nature  is  spiritual,  I  believe,  indeed,  to  be  one  of  the  radical 
truths  received  from  God  at  the  creation;  but  humanity  had  lost  it; 
scarcely  a  dim  echo  of  it  had  been  transmitted. 

Like  the  royal  child  of  whom  we  read,  man  had  degenerated  from 
the  pristine  consciousness  of  his  dignity.  Why,  even  now,  and  in 
lands  called  Christian — nay,  in  churches  called  Christian — how  few 
really  and  practically  recognise  the  soul.  Jesus  proclaimed  this 
truth — a  truth  which  our  nature  longed  to  hear.  In  his  teachings, 
the  soul  is  everything.  Little  cared  ho  for  what  was  external.  He 
heeded  neither  the  trappings  of  the  prince  nor  the  rags  of  the  beg- 
gar. Beneath  all,  through  all,  he  saw  a  soul  whose  dignity  and  worth 
transcend  finite  thought ;  and  with  what  solemn  warnings,  with  what 
intense  earnestness,  with  what  weeping  entreaties  and  expostulations, 
10 


146  THE   NEW   COMMANDMENT. 

did  lie  not  seek  to  awaken  in  man  a  sense  of  the  existence  and  glory 
and  danger  of  that  immortal  spirit.  This  was  the  source  of  the  bitter 
tears  he  shed — not  poverty,  nor  sickness,  nor  sorrow,  nor  the  death 
of  man's  body — but  the  soul,  which  was  everywhere  overlooked  and 
wronged,  and  about  to  perish  forever. 

This  caused  him  to  cling  to  every  human  being  with  an  interest 
which  no  guilt  could  destroy,  a  compassion  which  no  injuries  nor 
insults  could  exhaust.  The  only  charge  which  his  enemies  could 
ever  prove  against  him  was  conveyed  in  that  sneer,  'j  This  man  re- 
ceiveth  sinners,  and  eateth  with  them."  And,  catching  his  spirit, 
breathing  an  atmosphere  yet  warm,  vibrating  with  the  benedictions 
of  their  ascended  Lord,  see  what  a  new  passion  inflames  the  souls  of 
his  disciples.  Observe,  first,  their  love  among  themselves.  Selfish- 
ness is  expelled  by  a  new  and  absorbing  devotion  to  each  other. 
They  are  initiated  into  a  new  brotherhood  which  astonishes  the  men 
of  the  world,  who — unable  to  comprehend  this  mystery — exclaim, 
"  See  how  these  Christians  love  one  another."  Nor  did  they  only 
identify  themselves  with  each  other.  The  spirit  which  Jesus  be- 
queathed to  them  could  not  find  adequate  vent  in  the  church ;  it 
overleaped  all  restraints,  and  inaugurated  an  enterprise  which  was, 
and  still  is,  the  most  glorious  spectacle  to  angels.  Men  traversing 
the  earth,  and  enduring  toil  and  suff"ering,  not  for  gain,  but  for  love 
to  their  enemies ;  men  renouncing  home,  wealth,  ease,  honor,  and 
welcoming  poverty,  reproach,  shipwreck,  dungeons,  cruel  deaths, 
not  to  win.  honor  or  fame,  but  to  save  the  souls  of  others — here  was 
a  phenomenon — here  was  a  wonderful  epoch  in  the  archives  of  our 
race.  This  new  revelation  of  the  transcendent  glory  of  the  soul, 
flooded  the  hearts  of  that  little  band  of  apostles,  and  sent  them 
through  the  world,  burning  with  a  zeal  and  love  which  were  inde- 
fatigable and  inextinguishable. 

-  A  fourth  novelty  in  the  Saviour's  command  is  its  comprehensive- 
ness ;  for  it  embraces  and  renders  superfluous  all  other  commands. 
A  testator,  about  to  die,  executes  a  new  will,  which,  while  it  ratifies, 
supersedes  all  former  wills. 

•  Manifold  are  the  duties  which  the  word  and  spirit  of  Christ  re- 
quire us  to  perform  towards  each  other,  but  "  Love  is  the  fulfilling 
of  the  whole  law."  The  life,  health,  property,  purity,  reputation, 
happiness,  salvation  of  a  brother— these  should  be  sacred  to  us.  To 
injure  a  Christian  in  either  of  these  respects  is  such  a  sin,  that  Jesus 


THE   NEW   COMMANDMENT.  147 

declares,  "  It  were  better  for  a  man  that  a  millstone  were  liaugcd 
about  his  neck,  and  he  drowned  in  the  depth  of  the  sea,"  than  to 
wrong  the  humblest  of  his  people.  But  if  love  reign  in  our  hearts, 
no  enactments  will  be  needed  as  to  these  obligations ;  our  conduct 
will  be  regulated  by  a  higher  and  holier  motive  than  the  dread  of 
penalty.  Every  former  commandment  is  merged  in  this  command- 
ment, every  duty  is  comprised  in  this  duty. 

It  is,  however,  above  all,  in  the  type  and  example  and  measure  of 
love  prescribed,  that  this  precept  is  unique  and  singular ;  for  we  are 
to  love  each  other  as  Christ  hath  loved  us.  "  A  new  commandment 
I  give  unto  you,  That  ye  love  one  another;  as  I  have  loved  you,  that 
ye  also  love  one  another." 

I  wish  you,  my  friends,  to  feel  this  closing  remark.  And  to  im- 
press it  upon  your  hearts,  let  me  remind  you  that,  in  speaking  of  a 
new  commandment,  Jesus  plainly  refers  to  the  moral  code  published 
on  Sinai.  This  was  sealed  and  ratified  with  blood.  *'  Neither  was 
the  first  testament  dedicated  without  blood.  For  when  Moses  had 
spoken  every  precept  to  all  the  people  according  to  the  law,  he  took 
the  blood  of  calves  and  of  goats,  with  water  and  with  scarlet  wool 
and  hyssop,  and  sprinkled  both  the  book  and  all  the  people,  saying, 
This  is  the  blood  of  the  testament  which  God  hath  enjoined  unto 
you."  Now,  when  the  Saviour  uttered  the  commandment  in  our 
text,  he  was  seated  at  the  table  upon  which  the  supper  had  just 
been  received;  he  had  just  instituted  that  solemn  and  touching 
ordinance,  saying,  ''  This  is  my  body  which  is  broken  for  you,  this 
is  my  blood  which  is  shed  for  you  " — thus  dedicating  this  new  testa- 
ment with  his  own  blood.  And,  thus  consecrated  and  enforced, 
well  may  this  commandment  be  called  new.  "As  I  have  loved 
you " — this  is  his  own  interpretation  of  the  newness  of  this  com- 
mand ;  but  who  can  comprehend  all  the  import  of  these  words  ? 
How  many  admonitions,  and  reproofs,  and  exhortations,  are  con- 
densed into  that  single  sentence . 

A  love  how  attentive — as  considerate  and  assiduous  as  the  tender- 
ness of  a  woman.  Are  others  hungry  ?  he  works  miracles  to  feed 
them,  but  will  not  employ  his  power  for  himself,  even  when  famish- 
ing in  the  wilderness.  Are  his  disciples  weary?  he  bids  them 
"  Come  apart  and  rest  awhile,"  but  gives  no  repose  to  his  exhausted 
frame  Even  in  his  agony,  he  is  concerned  to  provide  a  home  and 
tender  sympathy  for  John,  whose  heart  would  be  most  bitterly  wrung 


148  THE   NEW   COMMANDMENT. 

by  his  bereavement,  avS  well  as  for  his  mother.  ''When  Jesus  there- 
fore saw  his  mother,  and  the  disciple  standing  by  whom  he  loved, 
he  saith  unto  his  mother,  Woman,  behold  thy  Son  !  Then  saith  he 
to  the  disciple.  Behold  thy  mother ! "  And  we  are  to  love  as  he 
loved,  with  the  same  considerate  assiduous  solicitude. 

A  love  how  confiding.  "  Having  loved  his  own  which  were  in  the 
world,  he  loved  them  unto  the  end."  Often  had  they  been  faith- 
less ;  and  now,  while  addressing  them,  he  knows  that  they  will  all 
in  a  few  hours  forsake  him.  Yet  he  trusts  them; -he  opens  his 
whole  heart  to  them;  he  commits  his  cause  to  their  keeping.  And 
we  must  love  as  he  loved.  Nothing  so  alienates  human  hearts  as 
suspicion;  nothing  cements  others  to  us  more  strongly,  and  more 
certainly  secures  fidelity  and  devotion,  than  confidence. 

A  love  so  condescending,  that  it  stoops  to  the  most  menial  oflice 
of  kindness  and  hospitality.  It  was  just  before  uttering  the  text, 
that  he  performed  an  act  which  I  can  never  recall  without  tears, 
when  I  remember  his  consciousness  of  ineffable  majesty.  "And 
Jesus  knowing  that  the  Father  had  given  all  things  into  his  hands, 
and  that  he  was  come  from  God,  and  went  to  God ;  he  riseth  from 
supper  and  laid  aside  hia  garment,  and  took  a  towel  and  girded 
himself  After  that,  he  poureth  water  into  a  basin,  and  began  to 
wash  the  disciples  feet,  and  to  wipe  them  with  the  towel  wherewith 
he  was  girded."  And  we  are  to  love  as  he  loved.  "  Ye  call  me 
Lord  and  Master,  and  ye  say  well;  for  so  I  am.  If  I,  then,  your 
Lord  and  Master,  have  washed  your  feet,  ye  also  ought  to  wash  one 
another's  feet." 

Love  so  compassionate,  that  he  not  only  pronounces  every  sin, 
however  aggravated,  pardonable,  if  only  against  himself;  but  he  is 
ingenious  in  finding  apologies  for  all  the  weaknesses,  even  for  the 
baseness  and  treachery,  of  those  he  had  trusted.  Could  a.nything 
be  more  unfeeling  than  the  want  of  sympathy  in  his  three  chosen 
friends  in  the  garden  ?  They  could  not,  for  one  hour,  watch  with 
him  in  his  sore  anguish.  But  he  pities  them,  and^excuses  them, 
saying,  "  The  spirit  indeed  is  willing,  but  the  flesh  is  weak."  Was 
ever  such  vileness  as  that  of  Thomas,  who  stubbornly  rejects  all 
proofs,  and  dictates  the  most  unreasonable,  not  -to  say  impious,  con- 
ditions? But  Jesus  not' only  forgives  him,  he  complies  with  the 
demands  of  this  perverse  disciple.  All  forsook  him,  and  Peter 
denied  him.    Does  he  resent  this  perfidiousness?    Scarcely  has  he 


THE   NEW   COMMANDMENT.  149 

risen,  before  he  sends  a  special  message  of  love  to  Peter,  ''  Go  tell 
my  disciples  and  Peter ;  "  and  he  appears  to  the  apostles  without 
a  word  of  reproof,  with  assurances  of  a  devotion  which  no  ingratitude, 
no  turpitude,  could  alter. 

Love  so  disinterested,  that  he  entirely  forgets  himself  when  his 
friends  are  in  sorrow  or  danger.  The  fearful  hour  of  his  crucifixion 
is  at  hand,  but  he  is  solely  occupied  in  encoui'aging  and  comforting 
those  whom  he  is  about  to  leave  as  orphans  in  the  world.  The  armed 
band  approach  in  the  night,  he  at  once  throws  himself  between 
them  and  the  apostles,  hastening  to  immolate  himself  that  he  may 
cover  his  disciples.  "  If  ye  seek  me,"  he  says,  "  let  these  go  their 
way."  And  when  toiling  up  the  hill,  bearing  his  cross,  he  is  un- 
willing that  the  women  should  be  afflicted  for  him.  "■  Daughters 
of  Jerusalem,  weep  not  for  me,  but  weep  for  yourselves  and  for 
your  children." 

But  I  will  never  have  done  upon  this  subject.  "  Having  loved  his 
own  which  were  in  the  world,  he  loved  them  unto  the  end."  Having 
devoted  his  whole  life  to  his  disciples,  so  that  he  could  appeal  to 
them,  "  if  they  had  lacked  anything,"  he  now  welcomes  death,  and 
pours  out  his  blood  for  them.  "  Christ  loved  the  church,  and  gave 
himself  for  it."  "  Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man 
lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends."  On  the  cross  he  bears  our  bur- 
den, that  we  might  learn  to  "  bear  one  another's  burden."  Risen, 
he  remains  forty  days  upon  earth,  teaching  us  that  no  prospect  of 
happiness  should  cause  us  to  forget  our  brethren.  Ascending,  his 
eyes  turn  not  to  the  radiant  gates  which  are  lifted  up  to  usher  him 
into  glory;  they  are  bent  upon  objects  dearer  to  his  heart — upon  his 
little  flock,  whom  he  "is  blessing"  as  he  rises  from  the  earth,  and 
continues  blessing  until  "  a  cloud  "  of  angels  "  receives  him  out  of 
their  sight."  Nor  has  his  love  known,  nor  will  it  ever  know,  any 
abatement.  "  The  Forerunner  is  /o?-  us  entered  "  into  heaven.  In 
the  midst  of  the  throne  he  still  loves  to  wear  our  humanity ;  he  is 
still  "  a  merciful  High  Priest,  touched  with  the  feeling  of  our  infirm- 
ities." No  elevation  can  weaken  his  sympathy  for  the  humblest 
Christian.  Surrounded  by  glorified  worshippers,  his  delight  is  still 
in  his  church  upon  earth.  The  salvation  of  sinners  was  "the  joy 
set  before  him  "  in  the  days  of  his  suffering  pilgrimage  here ;  and 
it  is  when  beholding  the  peace  and  happiness  and  safety  of  his  peo- 
ple, that  he  "  sees  of  the  ti-avail  of  his  soul  and  is  satisfied,"     "  A 


150  THE   NEW   COMMANDMENT. 

friend  of  publicans  and  sinners!"  tliis  was  tlie  contemptuous  derision 
flung  against  him  by  the  superb  Pharisees.  He  does  not  repel  the 
impeachment ;  he  glories  in  it.  He  prefers  that  title  above  all  his 
titles.  All  over  this  guilty  earth  he  would  have  it  proclaimed ;  he 
would  have  it  inscribed  on  every  pulpit,  and  recorded  in  every  human 
heart ;  and  yonder,  where  he  sits  with  cherubim  and  seraphim  fall- 
ing at  his  feet,  it  is  written  upon  his  blazing  diadem,  "  The  friend 
of  publicans  and  sinners." 

]My  brethren,  my  beloved  brethren,  what  a  type,  what  a  pattern 
of  love  is  this.  And  thus  to  love  is  the  normal  condition  of  human- 
ity to  which  Jesus  has  come  to  restore  us.  Behold  how  he  loved 
us!  "He  saved  others,"  said  his  enemies,  ''himself  lie  could  not 
save  ] "  how  could  he,  since  it  was  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself  that 
others  were  to  be  saved  ?  Let  us  cultivate  a  love  like  this.  It  is  to 
be  cultivated ;  it  is  not  an  impulse,  but  a  principle ;  it  is  not  natural 
to  us  in  our  fallen  state,  but  is  a  fruit  of  the  spirit,  and  is  to 'be 
habitually  nourished  and  strengthened.  Recollect  we  have  no  evi- 
dence of  piety,  if  we  are  destitute  of  this  love.  "  We  know  that  we 
have  passed  from  death  unto  life  because  we  love  the  brethren." 
"  He  that  loveth  not  his  brother,  abideth  in  death."  Without  this 
love  we  can  never  enter  heaven ;  nor,  if  admitted  there,  would  it  be 
heaven  to  us. . 

•  But  I  will  not,  I  cannot,  urge  any  argument  of  fear ;  let  me  press 
other  and  tenderer  pleas.  My  brethren,  if  the  blood  of  Christ  be 
precious  to  us,  let  us  love  one  another ;  it  is  by  that  blood  this  pre- 
cept is  consecrated  and  charged  upon  us.  If  the  truth,  the  cause  of 
Christ,  be  dear  to  us,  let  us  love  one  another ;  the  triumph  of  that 
truth,  the  success  of  that  cause,  depend  upon  our  harmony,  '-That 
they  all  may  be  one,  that  the  world  may  know  that  thou  hast  sent 
me."  Lastly,  the  farewell,  dying  words  of  one  dear  to  us  always  sink 
deep  in  our  hearts ;  then,  let,  oh,  let  this  last  parting  entreaty  of  the 
Redeemer  be  engraven  on  our  souls,  let  it  be  incorporated  into  our 
very  being — rebuking  our  selfishness — correcting  our  prejudices — 
calming  our  passions — expanding  our  afi'ections — binding  us,  not  in 
denominational,  but  in  Christian  union.  He  that  loves  his  party 
more  than  the  image  of  G-od  in  his  brother — though  that  image  be 
stamped  on  inferior  metal,,  and  very  imperfect — really  loves  his  party 
more  than  Christ,  and  himself  more  than  everything. 

"A  new  commandment  I  give  unto  you.  That  ye  love  one  another; 


THE  NEW   COMMANDMENT.  151 

as  I  haye  loved  you,  that  ye  also  love  one  another" — a  love  not  only 
in  spite  of  cliflFerences,  but  in  spite  of  ingratitude  and  injm-ies — a 
love  linking  us  all  to  Christ,  and  each  to  the  other,  by  ties  which 
shall  outlive  every  earthly  connection,  which  shall  become  stronger 
and  closer  and  dearer  with  each  revolving  cycle  of  eternity.  God 
grant  that  this  love  may  flow  from  his  own  heart,  and  circulate 
through  all  our  hearts !  May  it  evermore  dwell  in  us  all  richly ! 
"  For  this  cause  I  bow  my  knees  unto  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  of  whom  the  whole  family  in  heaven  and  earth  is  named,  that 
he  would  grant  you  according  to  the  riches  of  his  glory,  to  be 
strengthened  with  might  by  his  Spirit  in  the  inner  man ;  that  Christ 
may  dwell  in  your  hearts  by  faith,  that  ye,  being  rooted  and  grounded 
in  love,  may  be  able  to  comprehend,  with  all  saints,  what  is  the 
breadth  and  depth  and  height,  and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ  which 
passeth  knowledge,  that  ye  might  be  filled  with  all  the  fullness  of 
God.  Now,  unto  Him  who  is  able  to  do  exceeding  abundantly  above 
all  that  we  can  ask  or  think,  according  to  the  power  that  worketh  in 
us,  unto  Him  be  glory  in  the  church  by  Christ  Jesus  throughout  all 
ages,  world  without  end.    Amen." 


MRS  Co  (GllSARJKElFgYo  f\ ,  ;--/ 


PIlOaRI3S8 


kuman 


ams  are  uni 


..  .......  ibr 

ioited  as  the 


have  formed 

•  :tvo 


iooic  di  iv 


154  PROaRESS   IN   SIN. 

method.  It  is  not  a  systematic  creed  or  code.  It  was  not  given  to 
us  by  a  single  writer,  or  in  a  single  age.  It  consists  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  books.  They  were  written  at  diflferent  periods,  extending 
through  a  long  course  of  centuries.  The  earliest  portion  dates  back 
beyond  doubt  to  the  very  beginning  of  history  and  literature  as  they 
have  descended  to  us ;  the  last  appeared  soon  after  the  glories  of 
the  Augustan  age.  The  authors  were  widely  diverse  in  intellectual 
culture.  We  have  histories  and  biographies  which  record  facts  full 
of  moral  interest  and  instruction  with  great  beauty,  and  yet  with  the 
utmost  simplicity  and  with  slight  comment ;  collections  of  proverbs 
which  come  down  with  condescending  grace  to  the  rules  of  temporal 
prudence,  and  rise  up  with  lofty  dignity  to  the  principles  of  Divine 
wisdom ;  psalms  so  noble  that  they  would  become  the  golden  harps 
of  angels,  and  yet  such  an  outpouring  of  contrition  and  supplication 
and  acknowledgment  of  mercy  as  suit  only  man  in  his  depths  of 
shame  and  woe,  a  wail  as  from  a  broken  heart  now  trembling  from 
those  chords,  and  anon  a  strain  swept  thence  so  joyous  and  exultant 
and  adoring  that  we  are  borne  up  to  the  company  of  the  blessed  and 
close  by  the  throne  of  God ;  prophecies  which  are  a  history  of  the 
world  in  advance,  sometimes  foreshowing  events  a  few  days  remote, 
and  again  sweeping  in  all-comprehending  vision  through  ages  and 
centuries  to  the  very  end  of  time,  minute  in  details  about  individuals 
and  dates  and  places,  and  yet  embracing  the  destinies  of  nations,  the 
deep  counsels  of  Jehovah,  the  conflicts  of  principalities  and  powers 
belonging  tq  heaven,  earth,  and  hell,  and  the  vastest  interests  of  hu- 
manity; letters  written  to  individuals  and  churches  for  their  instruc- 
tion and  confirmation.  We  have  a  gradual  disclosure  of.  truth  and 
grace  from  the  time  of  the  fall  to  the  time  of  the  Apostles,  a  period 
containing  distinctly-marked  eras  of  religious  light  and  observances, 
the  Antediluvian,  Patriarchal,  Mosaic,  and  Christian,  new  prophecies 
coming  out  like  stars  in  the  firmament  and,  at  last  losing  themselves 
in  the  efi"ulgence  of  the  rising  sun,  new  symbols  and  rites  being 
given  to  prefigure  the  truth  until  the  very  substance  was  revealed  in 
Christ.  And  yet  amid  all  these  diversities  we  find  unity,  consist- 
ency, one  great  plan  developing,  one  holy  spirit  pervading  the  whole^ 
one  design  towards  whose  accomplishment  every  part  tends  in  its 
own  force,  and  all  harmoniously  combine.  The  only  explanation  is 
found  in  the  fact  that  God  at  divers  times  and  in  sundry  manners  has 
spoken  unto  us  by  the  mouths  and  pens  of  His  servants. 


PROGRESS   IN   SIN.  155 

I  have  chosen  for  consideration  an  incident  in  the  life  of  Hazael, 
briefly  recorded  iu  the  inspired  history  of  Israel,  and  containing  a 
lesson  and  warning  for  the  profit  of  all  ages  and  all  nations.  I  have 
thought  it  proper  to  preface  the  discussion  of  the  subject  by  some 
general  remarks  concerning  the  Scriptures,  with  the  design  of  recom- 
mending the  careful  perusal  of  all  their  parts,  because  they  display 
the  manifold  wisdom  of  God,  and  are  profitable  for  doctrine,  reproof, 
correction,  and  instruction  in  righteousness.  Even  in  the  historical 
books  you  will  discover  the  richest  lessons  of  a  wisdom  unto  salvation. 
Let  us  now  notice  the  few  facts  connected  with  the  text,  and  try  to 
deduce  thence  an  important  truth. 

Benhadad,  king  of  Syria,  was  sick,  and  hearing  that  Elisha  had 
come  to  Damascus,  he  sends  Hazael  to  inquire  of  the  prophet 
whether  he  would  recover.  Elisha  replied,  "Go,  say  unto  him. 
Thou  mayest  certainly  recover ;  howbeit,  the  Lord  hath  showed  me 
that  he  shall  surely  die."  That  is,  his  disease  was  not  incurable, 
but  his  death  would  be  brought  to  pass  by  other  means.  He  then 
gazed  fixedly  on  the  king's  servant  until  he  was  ashamed ;  and  the 
prophet  burst  into  tears.  Hazael  inquired  into  the  meaning  of  that 
weeping ;  and  the  prophet  replied,  "  Because  I  know  the  evil  that 
thou  wilt  do  unto  the  children  of  Israel ;  their  strongholds  wilt  thou 
set  on  fire,  and  their  young  men  wilt  thou  slay  with  the  sword,  and 
wilt  dash  their  children,  and  rip  up  their  women  with  child."  Ha- 
zael said,  "  But  what,  is  thy  servant  a  dog,  that  he  should  do  this 
great  thing  ?  "  and  Elisha  answered,  "  The  Lord  hath  showed  me 
that  thou  shalt  be  king  over  Syria."  He  returned  to  the  king,  told 
him  that  Elisha  had  predicted  with  certainty  his  recovery,  on  the 
morrow  sufi'ocated  his  master  with  a  thick  wet  cloth  spread  over  his 
face,  and  reigned  in  his  stead.  Soon  followed  the  oppression, 
slaughter,  and  cruelty  towards  Israel,  which,  as  foreseen,  had  brought 
tears  to  the  prophet's  eyes.  Truly,  "the  heart  is  deceitful  above 
all  things,  and  desperately  wicked  j  who  can  know  it  ?  " 

Hazael  appeared  to  be  filled  with  astonishment  and  mortification, 
at  the  atrocities  predicted  by  the  prophet.  Were  these  feelings 
feigned  or  real  ?  Did  he  only  pay  to  virtue  the  tribute,  and  pro- 
nounce against  himself  the  judgment,  which  have  been  extorted 
from  hypocrisy  in  all  ages  ?  Did  he  have  it  in  his  heart  to  do  all 
these  abominations  at  the  very  moment  he  afi"ected  to  be  horror- 
stricken  at  the  idea  that  he  could  ever  be  brought  to  such  baseness 


156  PROGRESS  IN   SIN. 

as  to  consent  to  them,  and  complained  that  the  servant  of  the  Lord 
had  made  such  grave  charges  against  him  ?     Or  have  we  not  a  right 
to  suppose,  is  it  not  in  accordance  both  with  the  intimations  of  this 
brief  account  and  with  the  workings  of  human  nature  as  shown  in 
the  world's  history  to  conclude,  that  he  revolted  with  sincere  disgust 
and  recoiled  with  sincere  terror  from  the  prospect  of  crimes  so  black 
and  base,  and  wondered  in  his  heart  why  Elisha  should  suspect  him 
to  be  capable  of  committing  them  ?     He  had  never  had  a  motive  for 
such  vast  and  foul  cruelty,  and  do  we  not  all  know  how  little  apt 
men  are  to  suspect  that  they  would  ever  violate  principles  of  right 
and  humanity,  especially  in  a  gross  and  infamous  way,  before  they 
have  been  placed  in  a  position  which  furnished  inducements  and 
temptations  to  do  so  ?     We  must  remember  that  every  man  has  in 
his  own  conscience  a  testimony  against  sin,  and  in  the  better  feelings 
of  his  own  heart  a  repugnance  towards  it,  especially  in  the  earlier 
stages  of  life,  ere  that  conscience  has  been  blinded,  and  that  heart 
debased  by  familiarity  with  vice  and  crime.     He  must  revere  good- 
ness though  he  may  not  possess  sufficient  strength  of  principle  to 
practice  it,  and  must  condemn  wickedness  though  his  lusts  and  pas- 
sions may  lead  him  to  its  perpetration.     How  ready  men  are  to  cen- 
sure and  denounce,  in  the  most  unmeasured  terms,  those  sins  from 
which  they  themselves  have  been  preserved  either  by  a  peculiar 
temperament  or  by  lack  of  motive  and  opportunity.     Hazael,  while 
a  servant,  who  executed  his  master's  decrees  without  the  responsi- 
bility of  fixing  them,  had  not  the  power  of  oppression  and  massacre 
on  a  large  scale,  nor  was  he  urged  by  ambition  to  attempt  such 
schemes.     No  doubt  he  gave  himself  credit,  as  we  do  oui-selves,  for 
his  freedom  from  crimes  against  which  his  circumstances  alone  had 
shielded  him.    But  when  he  saw  the  chance  of  ascending  the  throne, 
he  had  not  virtue  to  prevent  him  from  seizing  it  by  the  assassination 
of  his  king;  and  once  grasping  the  sceptre,  he  indulged  the  royal 
propensity  of  invading  and  subduing  neighboring  kingdoms,  and 
soon  suppressed  all  qualms  of  conscience  and  sickness  of  heart  at  the 
most  relentless  cruelty.     Israel,  deserted  by  God  for  their  idolatries, 
suffered  as  had  been  foretold.     Hazael  became  by  his  own  verdict  a 
dog,  mean  and  cruel.     He  was  not  the  first,  or  the  last,  to  pronounce 
beforehand  the  harshest  eqndemnation  of  his  own  guilt.    ' 

Does  it  still  seem  strange  to  you  that  he  should  have  expressed  so 
great  abhorrence  towards  a  course  which  he  soon  pursued,  unless  it 


PROGRESS   IN   SIN.  157 

were  sheer  hypocrisy?  Then  I  ask  you,  How  would  David  have  felt, 
with  regard  to  his  conduct  in  the  matter  of  Uriah,  before  the  charms 
of  Bathsheba  were  displayed  to  him  ?  Do  you  not  remember  with 
what  hot  wrath  he  pronounced  sentence  against  himself  unwittingly, 
when  Nathan  the  prophet  related  his  act  under  the  disguise  of  a 
parable,  and  the  king  was  not  brought  to  a  sense  of  his  sin  until  the 
prophet  added,  "  Thou  art  the  man  ?  "  Do  you  not  remember  also 
how  Peter  with  sincere  ardor  afifirmed  that  he  would  follow  Jesus  to 
the  death,  though  all  others  should  forsake  Him,  and  yet  that  very 
night  denied  Him  with  oaths  and  bitter  cursing?  These  were  far 
better  men  than  Hazael,  but  their  lives  teach  a  similar  lesson,  viz  : 
that  under  temptation  we  are  often  led  to  crimes  which  we  had 
loathed  and  hated,  and  which  we  would  never  have  suspected  our- 
selves to  be  capable  of  committing,  had  not  the  temptation  occurred. 

I  announce  this  proposition :  Exposure  to  strong  temptation  and 
a  long  course  of  evil  often  lead  men  to  a  depth  of  vice  and  an  ex- 
tremity of  crime  from  the  bare  contemplation  of  which  they  would 
once  have  shrunk  with  disgust  and  terror;  they  would  have  resented 
with  burning  indignation  as  an  unwarranted  insult  a  warning  from 
the  best  friend  to  avoid  such  infamy,  and  would  have  sincerely  ex- 
pressed a  preference  for  the  poorest  and  obscurest  condition  to  wealth 
and  rank  acquired  by  such  means. 

You  will  notice  that  in  this  proposition  I  mention  two  influences, 
the  one  arising  from  a  man's  situation,  and  the  other  from  his  own 
previous  course;  for  both  forces  co-operate  to  form  his  character 
and  determine  his  conduct.  I  do  not  intend  to  apologize  for  crime, 
or  exempt  the  criminal  from  responsibility,  by  attributing  it  to  the 
force  of  the  circumstances  amid  which  he  is  placed.  Joseph  fled 
when  strongly  enticed  to  sin,  and  Daniel  proved  faithful  to  Je- 
hovah, amid  the  profligacy  of  a  court,  and  against  the  decree  of  his 
king.  We  are  not  the  mere  slaves  of  our  circumstances,  but  are 
endowed  with  the  power  of  will  to  bend  them  to  our  own  purposes, 
and  by  the  aid  of  Divine  grace  may  purify  and  strengthen  our  virtues 
in  the  fires  which  were  kindled  to  consume  them,  and  the  conflicts 
which  were  waged  to  conquer  them.  But,  beyond  all  dispute,  cir- 
cumstances do  have  great  influence  over  us,  and  we  may  learn  from 
fliis  fact  two  lessons :  one  of  charity,  not  too  stringently  to  judge 
our  fellows,  without  knowing  the  violence  of  the  temptation  to  which 
they  yielded. 


158  PROGRESS   IN   SIN. 

Then  at  the  balance  let's  be  mute, 

We  never  can  adjust  it; 
What's  done,  we  partly  may  compute, 

But  never  what's  resisted. 

The  other  of  caution,  to  avoid  occasions  of  temptation,  or,  if  we  are 
necessarily  placed  among  them,  to  watch  and  pray  with  peculiar 
earnestness  that  we  be  not  overcome.  But  in  a  man's  own  heart  and 
habits  you  will  find  either  a  readiness  to  embrace  the  occasion  of 
sin  when  it  shall  occur,  or  else  a  virtue  to  resist  it.  When  the  spark 
of  temptation,  struck  out  amid  the  collisions  of  life  as  fire  from  a 
flint  smitten  by  steel,  falls  upon  a  vast  magazine  of  lust  and  passion, 
inflammable  and  explosive  materials  in  the  heart,  wide-spread  devasta- 
tion ensues.  Those  tempers  might  have  slumbered  there  without 
the  knowledge  of  the  person  in  whom  they  exist  or  of  others,  had 
not  the  event  occurred  to  excite  the  temptation,  and  the  event  may 
have  been  without  his  choice  or  expectation.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  event  might  have  transpired  without  these  terrible  results,  had 
not  those  passions  previously  existed,  though  dormant.  Do  we  not 
all  know  that  the  tiger  in  a  man's  heart,  his  ferocity  of  temper,  his 
dire  revenge,  has  slept  for  years,  and  been  quiet  and  harmless  as  a 
lamb,  until,  aroused  by  some  provocation,  it  has  sprung  upon  its  vic- 
tim with  merciless  cruelty?  Oi",  to  illustrate  the  gradual  concurrence 
of  these  internal  and  external  forces  as  we  most  usually  witness  it, 
hidden  within  the  heart  of  the  infant  is  a  germ  of  depravity.  It 
soon  develops  and  shoots  forth.  Drawing  nourishment  from  the  soil 
in  which  it  is  placed,  having  the  fatal  power  of  growing  alike  amid 
the  sunshine  of  prosperity  and  the  rains  of  adversity,  and  surrounded 
by  a  favorable  athiosphere  of  worldly  influence,  it  increases  and 
strengthens  until  it  has  waxed' to  the  size  of  a  great  tree,  its  roots 
deeply  imbedded  and  firmly  intertwined  in  the  earth,  its  rugged 
trunk  towering  aloft,  and  its  wide-spread  boughs  laden  with  deadly 
fruit. 

To  be  impressed  with  this  truth,  cast  your  eye  over  ^ociety;  review 
the  history  of  our  race.  What  a  variety  of  character  is  presented 
to  our  view — what  different  shades  and  grades  of  sin.  Here  is  a 
luxuriant,  there  a  stunted  growth  of  iniquity.  Or,  to  adopt  the  old 
comparison  of  the  soul  to  a  sheet  of  paper,  here  is  one  with  a  few 
pale  stains,  there  another  much  defiled  and  blurred,  and  yonder  a 
third  which  is  one  foul  blot.     Whence  this  diversity?     I  do  not 


PROGRESS   IN   SIN.  159 

deny  a  difference  in  the  original  moral  texture  of  men,  in  the  abso- 
lute and  comparative  strength  of  the  various  appetites,  propensities, 
and  tempers,  from  birth.  But  this  is  by  no  means  adequate  to  ac- 
count for  the  vast  dissimilarity  of  character  which  prevails  through- 
out our  globe. 

Sprung  from  the  man  whose  guilty  fall 

Corrupts  our  race  and  taints  us  all, 

every  one  is  born  with  an  unholy  nature,  in  which  are  enclosed  the 
elements  of  all  sin.  Those  least  liable  to  one  sin  may  be  most  prone 
to  another ;  and  instances  are  not  rare  of  the  grievous  disappointment 
of  early  promise — virtuous  and  amiable  youths  becoming  men  of  the 
most  depraved  and  atrocious  lives.  Nero,  Rome's  young  Emperor, 
weeps  that  he  has  ever  learned  to  write,  because  he  must  sign  a 
decree  for  the  execution  of  a  criminal,  and  gives  fair  promise  of  the 
restoration  of  morality  and  refinement  to  a  city  where  abounded  the 
most  inhuman  and  scandalous  sins ;  yet  soon  that  tender-hearted, 
blushing  boy  is  converted  into  the  most  execrable  monster  and 
tyrant,  murdering  his  own  mother,  and  surpassing  all  others  in  im- 
purity and  barbarity.  But  leaving  out  of  question,  just  now,  the 
direct  operations  of  Divine  grace  on  the  heart,  the  difference  must 
be  chiefly  attributed  to  two  causes :  1.  The  influence  of  different 
circumstances,  both  those  over  which  they  had  no  control — as  the 
land  of  their  birth,  the  character  of  their  parents,  and  the  society  in 
which  they  were  raised ;  and  those  for  which  they  afe  responsible — 
as  the  occupations  they  select,  the  associates  they  voluntarily  seek  or 
allow,  &c.  2.  The  influence  of  their  own  habits  of  thought,  feeling, 
and  action.  Here  is  a  monster  of  iniquity,  an  outcast  from  all  decent 
society,  who  drinks  down  sin  with  greediness,  and  is  restrained  from 
no  abomination,  either  by  fear  of  God  or  regard  for  man — a  beast  in 
lust  and  a  fiend  in  temper.  There  is  another  not  so  far  gone,  and  yet 
travelling  the  same  road  j  the  difference  lies  only  in  the  length  of 
time  during  which  they  have  pursued  the  common  path ;  this  one 
will  soon  be  as  far  advanced  as  that.  Here  is  a  third  who  has  lived 
more  years  than  either  of  those,  but  either  has  had  fewer  tempta- 
tions and  greater  restraints,  or  else  has  resisted  vigorously  his  evil 
inclinations  and  cultivated  virtuous  sentiments;  hence  he  is  com- 
paratively an  unstained  man. 

Enter  with  me  the  court-house.     See  that  man  in  the  prisoner's 
bos.    He  is  charged  with  the  malicious  murder  of  a  fellow  man.    His 


160  PROGRESS   IN   SIN. 

face  may  now  wear  upon  its  featiires  legible  impressions  of  guilt  and 
wretcliedness,  from  which  you  look  away  in  disgust,  or  he  may  have 
the  aspect  of  fm  honorable  gentleman.     But  listen,  as  witness  after 
witness  relates  the  horrid  details  of  his  crime,  perhaps  contrived  with 
deliberate  malignity,  perhaps  executed  as  quickly  as  conceived  upon 
sudden  temptation.     And  thus,  for  revenge  or  money,  he  hurries  an 
immortal  spirit  into  the  presence  of  the  great  God,  and  wrings  the 
hearts  of  parents,  wife,  and  children,  now  childless,  widowed,  or- 
phaned.   The  jury  must  find  him  guilty;  the  judge  must  pronounce 
the  sentence  of  death ;  the  story  of  his  crime  and  condemnation  must 
pass  from  mouth  to  mouth  of  horror-stricken  people,  and  be  published 
in  the  papers  of  the  land ;  the  gallows  must  be  erected,  and  in  the 
presence  of  a  shuddering,  sickened  crowd,  he  must  hang  by  the  neck 
until  he  is  dead,  dead,  dead.     And  yet  that  man,  wretch  though  you 
justly  call  him  now,  was  once  an  infant,  pressed  fondly  to  a  mother's 
bosom,  and  receiving  the  admiring  kiss  of  a  mother's  love ;  over  .his 
countenance  played  the  smile  of  innocence  and  aflfeetion,  and  his 
amusing  prattle  was  the  merriment  of  the  house.     Did  the  mother 
imagine  the  time  would  ever  come  when  that  child,  whose  face  was 
overshadowed  with  grief  by  her  slightest  frown  of  displeasure,  and 
whose  eyes  filled  with  tears  at  her  gentlest  word  of  reproof — that 
child  with  spirit  so  confiding,  whose  anger,  if  excited,  would  soon. 
pass  away  and  be  forgotten — could  ever  become  the  obdurate,  un- 
principled perpetrator  of  a  crime  sufficient  to  freeze  the  blood  of  the 
ordinarily  humane,  and  demanding  from  outraged  justice  the  taking 
of  his  own  life  as  the  penalty  ?    Many  happy  days  did  that  boy  spend 
at  school,  or  in  wandering  over  the  fields,  or  playing  upon  the  streets, 
his  laugh  as  loud  and  free,  his  heart  as  gleeful  and  generous,  as  warm 
and  hopeful,  as  those  of  his  merry  companions.     Then  he  wept  at 
scenes  and  tales  of  suffering;  then  he  quaked  at  deeds  of  blood.    By 
what  spell  of  infernal  magic  has  this  strange  transformation  been 
wrought  ?     How  has  this  innocent  babe,  this  lovely  boy,  this  noble- 
hearted    youth,    been    changed    into    the    degraded,    blood-thirsty 
wretch?     Ah!  by  no  magic-spell,  by  no  mysterious  witchery,  has 
this  been  done,  but  by  a  regular  law  of  the  moral  nature  or  of 
Divine  appointment ;  not  in  a  moment,  not  in  a  day,  but  through  a 
process  which  progressed , steadily  during  years;  slowly  it  may  have 
been,  imperceptibly  to  others,  unconsciously  to  himself,  his  heart 
has  been   hardening,  blackening,  coming   under   the  dominion  of 


PROGRESS   IN   SIN.  161 

selfish  and  diabolical  tempers ;  and  now  you  have  the  accursed  re- 
sult. 

By  a  fixed  law  of  God,  I  say,  this  moral  transformation  has  been 
wrought.  "  God  is  not  mocked ;  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that 
shall  he  also  reap."  Life  is  the  great  seed-time ;  through  eternity, 
the  harvesting  will  last.  We  now  scatter  the  seed;  we  will  then 
reap  the  abundant  fruits.  But  each  period  of  life  is  a  seed-time,  and 
each  following  period  a  harvest.  Youth  is  reaping  what  had  been 
sowed  in  childhood;  manhood  is  an  autumn,  during  which  are  ripened 
and  gathered  the  fruit  of  life's  spring-time.  You  reap  what  you  sow 
in  kind,  but  a  more  or  less  prolific  increase  in  quantity.  ''  For  he 
that  soweth  to  the  flesh,  shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corruption ;  but  he 
that  soweth  to  the  spirit,  shall  of  the  spirit  reap  life  everlasting." 
The  fact  is  as  plain  now  as  in  the  days  of  Eliphaz,  who  testifies  : 
"  Even  as  I  have  seen,  they  that  plough  iniquity,  and  sow  wicked- 
ness, reap  the  same."  And  mark  this  diff'erence :  that  good  seed 
may  mature  its  fruit,  the  heart  must  be  prepared  for  its  reception, 
and  the  crop  must  be  carefully  tended,  and  the  grass  and  weeds  must 
be  kept  out.  But  fling  broadcast  the  seeds  of  evil ;  do  not  watch,  do 
not  assist  them ;  go  and  sleep,  if  you  please ;  you  may  be  sure  that 
they  will  come  up  and  thrive  rankly. 

Life  is  a  warfare  between  the  principles  of  good  and  evil.  It  begins 
with  the  dawn  of  thought,  and  progresses  to  the  hour  of  death.  Sin, 
though  an  usurper,  is  the  reigning  power  from  birOi,  and  occupies  a 
well-fortified  citadel.  But  the  tyrant  has  not  undisputed  sway.  Vir- 
tue, though  not  reigning,  asserts  her  just  claims  to  the  throne,  and 
struggles  to  gain  it.  Every  day,  slight  skirmishes  occur;  and  occa- 
sionally there  are  fought  pitched  battles,  in  which  the  contending 
forces  are  all  brought  into  the  field,  and  the  gravest  interests  are  at 
stake.  ■  Do  you  not  remember  many  of  these  spiritual  conflicts  be- 
tween desire  and  conscience,  the  love  of  sin  and  the  sense  of  duty  ? 
When  sin  gains  a  decided  victory,  the  nobler  sentiments  are  like  a 
defeated  army,  with  thin  and  dispirited  ranks.  They  do  not  surren- 
der easily,  however.  But  triumph  follows  triumph;  the  virtuous 
feelings  give  battle  less  readily,  and  quickly  retreat;  at  length,  they 
are  thoroughly  subdued,  and  sin  rules  without  opposition  or  fear. 

Many  specific  instances  of  this  truth  might  be  cited ;  it  applies  to 
every  form  which  sin  assumes,  and  to  every  individual  by  whom  it  is 
practiced.  The  boy  stammers  forth  a  falsehood  to  his  questioning 
11 


162  PROGKESS   IN   SIN. 

parent,  that  he  may  conceal  some  fault  and  escape  punishment;  but 
shame  trips  the  tongue  and  burns  the  cheek,  clearly  disclosing 
his  guilt.  The  man  will  lie  without  a  falter  in  his  voice  or  a  change 
in  his  countenance.  Have  you  ever  seen  a  youth,  in  a  fit  of  passion, 
utter  his  first  oath,  and  then  stand  still  and  silent,  as  though  his 
tongue  had  been  paralyzed  and  his  frame  petrified,  his  conscience 
convicting  him  of  a  great  crime  ?  In  a  few  years,  he  will  pour  out 
oaths  the  most  blasphemous,  and  curses  the  most  fearful,  without 
compunction.  A  man  lives  in  idleness  or  extravagance^  wilfully,  ex- 
ceeding his  means,  and  plunging  into  debt ;  pressed  by  creditors,  too 
lazy  to  work,  ashamed  to  beg,  unwilling  to  deny  himself  the  luxuries 
to  which  he  is  used,  or  to  reduce  the  splendor  in  Which  he  has  lived, 
he  at  length  tries  to  extricate  himself  from  difficulty  by  forging  his 
neighbor's  hand  or  plundering  his  drawer,  or  by  some  other  means 
not  less  swindling  though  more  safe.  A  young  man  plays  a  game 
of  cards  with  some  little  stake,  not  to  make  money,  but  to  increase 
the  interest  of  the  sport,  with  a  few  companions,  who  wish  to  beguile 
the  hour  cf  its  weariness  or  the  heart  of  its  care.  He  contracts  a 
fondness  for  the  amusement,  and  spends  hours  at  it  every  night;  he 
is  led  on  to  bet  larger  and  larger  sums,  stimulated  by  success,  or  ren- 
dered desperate  by  losses ;  he  acquires  a  disrelish  for  securer  and 
slower  methods  of  getting  riches,  and  a  passion  for  gambling ;  he 
visits  the  hells  which  abound  in  our  cities,  hardens  his  heart  to  ada- 
mant against  every  generous  feeling,  and  plays  himself  into  utter  pov- 
erty, or,  what  is  more  galling  to  an  honorable  man,  into  wealth 
gotten  unjustly  from  families  thereby  impoverished  and  ruined.  You 
have  noticed  the  blush  of  offended  modesty,  as  it  spread  over  the  face 
of  an  ingenuous  youth  at  some  indelicate  allusion.  But  he  accustoms 
himself  to  listen  to  the  lewdest  conversations,  learns  to  laugh  at  the 
coarsest  jests,  indulges  his  kindling  passions  by  reading  obscene 
books,  and  enters  on  a  course  of  unrestrained  licentiousness.  Need  I 
repeat  the  oft-told  tale  of  the  drunkard's  career  ?  It  commences  with 
a  sparkling  glass  of  wine  on  a  festive  occasion,  when  the  coiled  adder 
is  not  seen  or  suspected  to  be  near.  It  is  continued  in  the  private  room 
of  a  friend,  to  brighten  intellect  and  enliven  the  soul.  Then,  in  a 
stealthy  way,  the  bar-room  is  entered,  and  strong  drink  is  demanded. 
Intoxication  at  night;  headache,  shame,  repentance,  in  the  morning. 
The  system  becomes  used  to  the  stimulant,  demands  it  as  a  necessity, 
is  burning  up  by  slow  fires  every  day,  is  often  inflamed  by  extraor- 


PROGRESS   IN   SIN.  163 

dinary  potions.  The  generous,  hopeful,  intelligent  youth  has  be- 
come a  slave  in  fetters,  a  doomed  victim,  tormented  before  death — a 
dog — worse  than  a  dog — more  grossly  indulging  his  appetites,  and 
falling  into  gutters  where  the  dog  is  too  cleanly  to  lie. 

Learn,  0  man,  he  that  tries  to  lead  a  holy  life  is  like  one  who  rolls 
a  heavy  stone  up  the  steep  side  of  a  lofty  hill ;  the  tendency  of  na- 
ture is  to  resist  his  effort,  and  bring  the  stone  to  the  vale  again. 
Steadily,  with  patience  and  perseverance,  must  he  struggle  on,  glad 
even  of  small  progress.  If  for  a  moment  he  relax  his  effort,  it  will 
roll  back  to  the  foot  of  the  hill,  and  he  must  begin  the  task  anew. 
But  the  servant  of  sin  is  like  one  who  starts  the  rock  from  the  top  of 
the  hill ;  the  force  of  nature  co-operates  with  him.  On,  on,  with 
ease  and  speed,  it  rolls ;  he  need  not  push  it  now ;  its  velocity  rap- 
idly increases ;  such  momentum  has  it  gathered,  that  all  his  strength 
would  not  suflSce  to  stop  it,  but,  with  fearful  swiftness  and  force,  it 
rushes  downward.  Alas !  how  we  gravitate  by  our  own  nature  to- 
wards earth  and  hell ! 

A  virtuous  heart  is  like  a  most  delicate  musical  instrument. 
There  is  nothing  half  so  beautiful  on  earth,  and  it  gives  forth  the 
richest  melody  that  is  heard  this  side  of  the  gates  of  heaven.  But 
the  breath  of  sin  will  tarnish  its  exquisite  polish ;  the  least  rudeness 
will  snap  some  string,  and  make  its  notes  discordant.  There  are  a 
thousand  avenues  to  the  heart  which  must  be  carefully  guarded,  if 
we  would  keep  sin  out.  Some  enticing  form  presetits  itself  to  your 
eye,  some  charmer  sings  in  your  ear.  You  gaze,  you  listen.  Thought 
dwells  on  the  forbidden  fruit ;  desire  is  excited ;  sense,  imagination, 
lust,  are  indulged ;  the  will  yields,  and  the  deed  is  done. 

In  conclusion,  let  us  trace  the  downward  progress.  Its  outward 
steps  are  evident.  The  keeping  of  bad  company,  forsaking  home  and 
church,  visiting  places  unfavorable  to  virtue,  jesting  at  sacred  things 
and  the  restraints  of  morality,  plunging  headlong  into  depths  of  in- 
iquity, selling  one's  self  to  the  devil. 

But  let  us  attempt  an  analysis  of  the  internal  process  of  degene- 
racy. 

1.  There  is  the  force  of  habit.  It  inclines  us  to  repeat  our  acts, 
and  enables  us  to  do  so  with  greater  ease.  Its  power  augments  with 
each  repetition,  induced  by  itself  in  part.  Every  one  knows  that 
habit  renders  things  which  were  offensive  agreeable,  things  which 
were  difficult  easy,  things  which  were  indifferent  necessary,  and 


164  PROGRESS   IN   SIN. 

things  which  were  pleasing  beloved  to  idolatry.  Each  indulgence 
in  sin  helps  to  form  a  habit  of  sin ;  it  drags  on  other  indulgences, 
which  are  an  effect  of  the  previous  conduct,  and  a  cause  of  sins  to 
come ;  thus,  as  you  this  year  reap  the  harvest  of  last  year's  sowing, 
you  sow  a  larger  field,  and  prepare  for  a  vaster  harvest ;  every  turn 
of  the  windlass  wraps  about  you  another  coil  of  a  chain,  each  of 
whose  links  is  hard  enough  to  be  broken.  To  give  a  single  illustra- 
tion, how  quickly  a  man  forms  the  custom  of  swearing,  so  that  oaths 
and  curses  drop  unconsciously  from  his  lips. 

2.  In  addition  to  the  strength  of  mere  habit,  we  give  greater 
activity  and  vehemence  to  evil  desire  and  passion  by  indulging  them. 
A  man  cherishes  the  love  of  money,  and  seeks  with  undue  anxiety  to 
accumulate,  until  gold  becomes  his  god,  and  his  whole  life  an  idola- 
trous worship  of  it,  and  avarice  eats  up  every  good  feeling.  Or  he 
fosters  ambition  after  place  and  power,  applause  and  fame,  until  it 
becomes  a  grasping,  insatiate,  absorbing  craving,  which  leaves  no 
room  for  less  selfish  and  more  sacred  principles.  Anger  and  resent- 
ment are  nourished,  until  the  spirit  is  thoroughly  soured,  or  filled 
with  revenge.  So  with  all  the  appetites,  propensities,  and  passions. 
They  are  fed  with  fuel,  and  flame  with  a  violence  which  cannot  be 
quenched. 

3.  While  the  bad  tempers  are  gaining  strength,  the  better  senti- 
ments are  dying  for  want  of  culture,  and  ma.i  is  losing  his  self-con- 
trol. The  stream  is  swollen,  and  rushes  with  torrent  speed,  and  man, 
like  a  log  without  power  of  resistance,  is  swept  down. 

4.  Conscience  once  spoke  loud  in  warning  against  sin,  and  in  re- 
proach when  it  was  committed.  Often  it  restrained  the  man;  and 
even  when  overcome,  he  felt  uneasy  and  alarmed.  But  now  that 
voice  has  been  so  long  disregarded,  it  is  silenced,  or  speaks  so  indis- 
tinctly that  you  hear  it  not  amid  the  shouts  of  revelry,  and  the 
clumor  of  desire,  and  the  cry  of  passion.     You  sin  without  rebuke. 

5.  The  mind  is  blinded.  He  loses  his  sense  of  right  and  wrong, 
good  and  evil.  He  cannot  see  the  truth.  What  vision  he  has  is 
perverted.  Once  there  was  a  deformity  in  sin,  a  beauty  in  holiness, 
but  he  walks  in  darkness  now.     The  Gospel  is  hid  unto  him. 

6.  The  heart  hardens.  Its  feelings  were  once  tender,  but  now 
they  are  callous.  Nothing  can  move  him.  Not  even  the  mercy  of 
God,  not  the  hope  of  heaven,  not  the  fear  of  hell,  not  the  triumphant 
death  of  a  Christian,  not  the  unhappy  death  of  a  sinner,  not  all  these 


PROGRESS   IN   SIN.  165 

combined,  can  stir  his  dead,  can  warm  his  icy,  can  soften  his  stony 
heart. 

7.  The  Holy  Spirit,  long  grieved,  many  times  repulsed,  leaves 
him — leaves  him  to  himself.  He  is  given  up  to  his  own  lusts.  He 
is  abandoned  to  his  own  folly.  He  is  undisturbed  in  his  ease  and 
pleasures.  His  companions  wonder  at  the  quiet  and  security  which 
he  exhibits.  The  explanation  is,  that  a  benumbing  chilliness  has 
overpowered  him,  and  all  sense  of  danger  is  lost,  as  he  closes  his 
eyes,  and  sinks  into  a  frozen  slumber  scarcely  less  profound  than  that 
in  which  it  soon  ends,  the  sleep  of  an  eternal  death. 

"  Wherewithal  shall  a  young  man  cleanse  his  way  ?  By  taking 
heed  thereto  according  to  Thy  Word." 


e^. 


-•'^y.cmA?  raoR3Kia(KEffl(Q)[n)Ei, 


168  THE   POWER    OF   FAITH. 

creative,  but  deductive.  It  cannot  project  premises  upon  nothino-.  If 
it  were  possible,  that  would  isolate  man  in  the  universe,  and  change 
its  steady  faithful  light,  which  is  to  irradiate  every  dark  cavern  and 
lay  open  every  mystery,  into  an  ignis  fatuus ;  its  fabric  would  be  a 
castle  in  the  air,  its  teachings  useless,  hopeless  hypotheses,  fleeting 
fancies,  which  in  chaotic  confusion  would  tumble  one  over  the  other, 
and  pass  away  like  dreams  before  every  succeeding  wave  of  imagina- 
tion. No!  Science  consists  only  in  connection  with  Grod  and  Grod's 
world !  It  is  not  self-taught,  but  "  taught  of  God."  To,her  wonder- 
ing gaze  nature  lies  open,  and  on  expanded  wings  she  passes  through 
the  universe,  and  "sweeps  suns  and  stars  and  galaxies  in  her  range," 
then  kneels  reverently  at  the  throne  of  God,  to  behold  the  truth  of 
every  vision,  and  hear  the  interpretation  of  all  things,  and  meekly 
she  closes  her  pinions  on  her  breast,  and  returns  to  earth — in  the 
sweat  of  the  brow,  in  the  laboratory,  in  the  study,  with  deep  thought 
and  unwearied  labor,  to  spell  out  the  unutterable  things  heard  in  the 
height,  and  read  the  name  of  God  written  in  every  law,  and  find  His 
truth  in  the  appearances  of  His  world. 

It  is  this  intuition,  these  assumptions  of  science,  this  basis  of  faith, 
which  lays  her  foundation  upon  grounds  everlasting.  No  wonder 
the  first  sages  were  the  priests  of  the  earth,  her  priests  the  teachers 
of  her  children.  And  to  this  day,  the  true  scholar,  the  earnest  man 
of  science,  is  a  priest,  ministering  at  the  altar  of  nature  and  nature's 
God.  Resting  on  the  fundamental  truths  which  are  revealed  to  faith, 
and  called  self-evident  because  incapable  of  demonstration,  he  carries 
them  through  the  created  universe,  its  matter  and  its  mind ;  and  by 
their  light  examines  every  process,  and  by  their  rule  measures  every 
depth ;  and  step  by  step  deduces  one  truth  after  another,  and  links 
them  together  in  a  chain  with  which  he  threads  his  way  throuo'h  the 
labyrinth  of  the  phenomenal  world;  and  calls  forth  its  hidden  powers, 
and  combines  them  to  new  forces,  and  applies  them  for  new  pur- 
poses, at  every  step  verifying  his  processes  by  exhibiting  the  "  im- 
primatur" of  its  germinal  truth — till  he  has  made  the  circuit;  and 
from  the  sanctuary  of  the  student's  cell  he  steps  forth',  like  Newton 
carrying  the  tables  on  which  are  engraved  the  everlasting  laws  of 
God's  creation,  or  with  the  prophet-eye  of  a  Leverrier  descrying  un- 
known worlds,  and  bidding, stars  to  rise  on  the  distant  firmament  in 
obedience  to  those  laws. 

Our  daily  life  furnis"hes  a  more  accessible  witness  to  the  same 


TEE   POWER   OF   FAITH.  1^9 

truth.  Human  society  is  so  constituted,  that  it  rests  on  the  mutual 
exercise  oi  faith  on  the  part  of  its  members.  I  cannot  trust  my 
neighbor  without  believing  in  his  truthfulness.  I  cannot  esteem 
him  without  assuming  the  dignity  of  his  character.  I  cannot  love 
him  unless  the  eye  of  faith  has  found  the  way  to  his  heart.  I  cannot 
labor  without  relying  upon  the  coming  reward.  I  cannot  undertake 
anything  without  looking  for  issues  appreciated  only  by  faith.  My 
every  calculation,  my  daily  work,  the  merchant's  busy  agency,  the 
statesman's  plans  and  schemes,  the  legislator's  care  and  circumspec- 
tion— all  become  impossibilities  without  the  substratum  of  faith,  which 
is  "  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not 
seen."  Yes,  and  that  hope,  which  is  our  constant  companion,  which 
visits  with  its  smiles  the  darkest  mind,  and  lays  her  balm  on  every 
wounded  spirit :  what  is  it  but  "  the  soul  reposing  on  the  breast 
of  faith,"  the  soul  enjoying  already  the  vision  which  faith  has  con- 
jured up,  and  laying  her  hand  on  possessions  the  existence  of  which 
is  revealed  only  to  the  believing  mind  ?  And  is  it  strange  or  unrea- 
sonable, is  it  not — humanly  speaking — by  necessity,  and  in  perfect 
harmony  with  that  constitution  which  God  gave  to  man,  when  He 
made  him  receptive  of  impressions  from  without  and  from  above, 
that  His  revelation  appeals  to  this  faculty,  and  makes  it  the  onlf/ 
medium  through  which  He  can  be  found  and  possessed,  and  His 
truth  incorporated  in  our  life? 

"  Faith,"  saith  the  apostle,  "  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for, 
the  evidence  of  things  not  seen."  It  is  "that  feeling  or  faculty 
within  us,  by  which  what  is  future  and  what  is  invisible  is  assumed 
as  real,  and  becomes  the  ruling  element  for  our  action  in  the  present; 
the  faculty  by  which  the  future  becomes  to  our  minds  greater  than 
the  present,  and  what  we  do  not  see  more  powerful  to  influence  us 
than  that  we  do  see."  Our  Saviour  expressed  the  same  idea  when 
He  upbraided  the  Pharisees :  "  How  can  ye  believe  which  receive 
honor  one  of  another,  and  seek  not  the  honor  which  cometh  from 
God  only,"  who  prefer  the  present  to  the  future,  the  visible  to  the 
invisible,  the  earthly  to  the  heavenly?  He  lays  His  finger  on  the 
true  point  at  issue ;  and  what  is  true  here  in  the  special  case  of 
"  honor,"  is  true  of  everything  else — possessions,  pleasures,  gains, 
gratifications,  &c.  Buried  in  the  present,  or  looking  up  to  what  is 
before  and  yet  to  come,  looking  aloft  to  what  is  higher  and  more  val- 
uable, and  worth  the  surrender  of  the  moment — that  is  the  question ! 


170  THE   POWER   OF   FAITH. 

It  has  often  been  illustrated  by  plain  cases  in  an  ascending  scale. 
The  child  which  forbears  to  eat  the  forbidden  fruit,  because  of  the 
threatened  punishment,  the  certainty  of  which  overcomes  with  its 
anticipated  terrors  the  temptation  before  him ;  the  boy  who  submits 
to  the  drudgery  of  the  school-room  and  his  daily  task,  because  he  has 
regard  to  the  promised  reward  of  knowledge  and  distinction ;  the 
victim  of  vice,  who  forswears  the  intoxicating  cup  or  the  gambler's 
hell,  because  to  the  eye  of  his  mind  are  revealed,  with  a  power  that 
claims  obedience,  the  issues  of  the  diverging  roads  of  indulgence  or 
reformation ;  the  man  who  in  his  business,  transactions  overlooks 
many  a  slight  loss  or  sacrifice,  counting  on  the  increased  popularity 
he  gains,  and  the  sure  reward  that  is  to  pour  into  his  lap ;  the  spec- 
ulator who  risks  his  all  on  one  cast,  in  the  mad  persuasion  that  his 
scheme  cannot  fail,  but  must  bring  him  in  the  coveted  treasure :  all — 
in  however  subordinate  a  sphere,  however  unwarranted  the  premises 
of  some,  however  low  the  aim — all  actu-pon  the  principle  of  faith. 
The  life  of  most  men  is  just  a  fluctuation  between  these  two  domi- 
nant influences — the  strength  of  the  present,  or  the  power  of  faith. 
The  warfare  is  going  on ;  now  the  one,  now  the  other  master  bears 
the  rule.  The  secret  of  .every  failure  is  the  want  of  persevering 
faith.  Victory  is  only  theirs  (whatever  goal  they  may  have  placed 
before  them)  who  acknowledge  the  power  of  the  invisible,  who  obey 
the  influence  of  faith  ! 

The  power  of  faith  lies  in  this:  It  brings  the  object  ever  nearer, 
and  its  eager  gaze  makes  it  clearer  and  more  to  be  desired ;  and  yet, 
it  keeps  up  the  stimulus  and  the  fascination  of  suspense  and  excite- 
ment ;  it  brings  it  so  near,  that  hope  aliKjady  has  a  foretaste,  and  it 
seems  almost  within  the  grasp  of  the  eager  soul.  Yet  it  is  still  to  he 
obtained,  and  not  yet  in  full  possession,  not  yet  exhausted,  not  yet 
ours  to  satisfaction  or  satiety.^  it  still  has  its  coming  reward !  Can 
we  not  see,  then,  how  deeply  harmonized  this  principle  is  with  the 
very  constitution  of  our  mind  and  heart  ?  And,  again,  how  rational 
is  the  position  of  Scripture  in  proclaiming  faith  as  th^  means  of  suc- 
cess :  "  All  things  are  possible  to  him  that  believeth  ?  " 

This  statement,  it  is  true,  finds  its  perfect  fulfilment  only  in  the 
Christian;  for  he  alone  pursues,  not  only  the  highest,  but  what  is 
alone  the  true,  the  real  object  of  faith.  But  it  is  approximately  true 
in  everything.  Where  a  man  hai  faith,  his  object — whatever  it  may 
be,  good  or  bad — becomes  the  one  ruling  thought  and  aim  of  his  life. 


THE    POWER   OF   FAITH.  171 

We  know  what  a  power  is  possessed  by  one  idea.  The  man  who 
scatters  his  strength,  and  engages  in  a  multiplicity  of  pursuits,  rarely 
excels  in  any,  rarely  meets  with  marked  success.  The  Polyhistor, 
the  man  who  dabbles  in  every  branch  of  science  or  literature,  is  great 
in  none.  But  when  an  earnest  mind  selects  a  "specialty,"  and 
makes  all  the  rivers  of  science  and  art  tributaries  to  this  one  stream 
on  which  he  is  embarked,  he  leaves  his  mark  upon  his  age.  Just  so 
in  every  department  of  life.  Let  a  man  be  possessed  with  one  great 
thought  and  problem,  to  which  he  is  ready  to  sacrifice  all,  for  which 
he  counts  all  else  but  loss ;  and  the  very  difl&culties  in  his  way  will 
but  nerve  his  soul,  and  make  the  goal  he  runs  for  more  desired.  His 
every  thought  and  power  and  interest  are  absorbed  in  it,  his  soul 
hungers  for  it  more  and  more,  and  thirsts  and  craves  for  it  with  ever 
keener  zest;  it  becomes  to  him  life,  and  wealth,  and  health,  and  hap- 
piness, and  all ;  it  is  Ms  religion,  for  which  he  gives  up  all  else,  to 
which  he  consecrates  his  labor  and  his  strength :  that  man  cannot 
fail !  If  he  does  not  actually  gain  the  victory,  and  seize  the  crown, 
and  plant  his  trophy,  he  will  fall  on  the  battle-field  of  life,  still  un- 
subdued, his  wounds  in  his  breast — that  breast  which  was  faithful  to 
the  last  to  the  idol  of  his  soul ! 

From  his  earliest  days,  the  Roman  believed  he  was  destined  to 
rule.  Seven  hundred  years  could  not  wear  out  his  faith  nor  abate 
his  ardor ;  but  after  seven  hundred  years  of  struggle  and  combat,  the 
world  lay  at  his  feet. 

It  was  faith  which  nerved  the  heart  of  France  to  the  horrors  of 
her  revolution,  and  lashed  it  into  mad  rebellion  against  the  rights  of 
God  and  man.  The  sj)ell  was  on  her,  and  she  quaked  not  in  her  march 
through  blood  and  terrorism ;  and  she  quailed  not  before  the  coali- 
tion of  all  Europe,  and  carried  her  eagles  to  every  clime  and  land. 
Nor  did  she  falter  in  her  course,  and  admit  the  allied  armies  on  her 
soil,  till  she  was  disenchanted  with  the  object  of  her  faith,  and  woke 
aflPrighted,  as  from  a  fearful  dream ! 

The  gentle  shepherdess  of  Dom-Remy,  clad  in  steel,  and  carrying 
the  oriflamme,  rallying  the  faltering  followers  of  the  Dauphin,  it  was 
her  faith — the  fanatical  faith,  perhaps,  which  she  placed  in  her  own 
divine  visions  and  holy  calling — that  nerved  her  for  the  deadly  con- 
test, and  gave  her  power  over  the  armies  of  France,  and  struck  terror 
into  the  victory-crowned  chivalry  of  England  !  Only  after  she  had 
conducted  the   Dauphin   to  Rheims,  and  Charles  VII  had   been 


172  THE   POWER   OF  FAITH. 

crowned — only  when  her  mission  was  completed — her  star  began  to 
set ;  and  Joan  of  Arc  exhaled  her  pure,  romantic  life  on  the  fagots 
of  Rouen ;  but  her  faith  had  triumphed ! 

Like  a  second  Noah,  who  for  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  was  the 
laughing-stock  of  his  generation  for  building  the  ark,  Columbus 
braved  the  sneers  and  coldness  of  his  contemporaries.  The  belief  in 
his  heart  that  he  should  find  a  new  world,  he  ventured  on  the  broad 
Atlantic ;  his  faith  sustained  him  through  all  the  long,  long  days  and 
nights,  and  all  the  storms  of  sea,  and  the  more  threatening  dangers  of 
mutiny.  On  he  steered,  westward,  ever  westward.  What  though  per- 
secution afterwards  assailed  him,  and  ingratitude  put  him  in  chains ! 
That  cry  of  "  Land !  "  "  Land ! "  ever  rang  in  his  ears.  That  reward 
of  his  faith,  when  he  planted  the  cross  on  St.  Salvador — it  was  worth 
the  sufferings  of  an  age. 

All  these  are  victories  of  faith.  History  and  our  daily  life  are  full 
of  them.  And  we  record  these  here  to  show  the  analogy,  and  how 
the  same  principle  prevails  everywhere.  But  the  issues  must  depend 
on  the  nature  of  its  object.  And  here  is  the  difference  between  the 
Christian  and  all  others.  As  it  is  with  the  Christian's  hope,  "  their 
rock  is  not  as  our  rock,"  so  it  is  with  his  faith.  Many  others,  like 
him,  may  walk  by  faith,  rather  than  sight;  but  if  the  object  be 
earthly,  its  reward  must  be  so  too.  He  may  gain  the  gold  for  which 
be  hungered,  and  for  the  sake  of  which  he  stifled  every  generous 
feeling.  He  may  seize  the  honor  for  which  he  sacrificed  his  peace. 
He  may  revel  in  excesses  which  but  sink  him  lower  than,  the  brute. 
Ah!  but  he  can  look  for  naught  beyond;  he  has  had  his  reivard 
here;  he  cannot  complain  if  his  sowing  does  not  bring. up  the  fruit 
of  eternal  life ;  he  cannot  complain  even  if  here  in  this  life  he  suffers 
shipwreck,  and  dies  a  martyr  to  his  hopeless  faith,  without  ever  at- 
taining fruition ;  he  cannot  complain,  if,  in  the  world  to  come,  he 
rises  to  "  the  resurrection  of  damnation." 

Nor  is  it  every  religious  faith  which  gains  the  final  victory.  There 
be  many  a  deluded  soul,  which,  in  utter  selfishness,  just  makes  a 
bargain  of  "  profit  and  loss,"  and  foregoes  the  sweets  and  sins  of  life, 
not  in  the  heart  and  disposition,  but  in  open  practice,  to  gain  a 
heaven  of  more  lasting  gratification,  (oh  !  what  a  heaven  for  a  soul 
of  such  tastes  !)  or  which  slaves  it  along  in  the  bondage  of  penance 
and  self-torture,  to  merit  the  rewards  of  eternal  life !  Between  world- 
liness,  even  as  turned  upon  eternity,  on  one  side,  and  superstition,  as 


THE   POWER   OF   FAITH.  173 

darkening  the  portals  of  free  grace,  on  the  other,  behold  the  soul 
passes  free  and  victorious  that  believes  in  Christ  !  Ah  !  brethren, 
Christ,  the  object  of  our  faith !  Christ,  our  religion !  Christ,  our 
life  !  Christ,  the  hope  of  glory  !  Rere  is  a  radical  difference  !  Here 
the  alone  object  that  can  last,  for  it  alone  is  true;  and  here  the  power 
which  must  insure  the  victory !  Believe  in  Christ,  and  there  can  he 
no  failure  ! 

In  Christ  there  is  certain  escape  from  ruin,  for  "  there  is  no  con- 
demnation to  them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus,"  and  "  His  blood 
cleanseth  from  all  sin."  In  Him,  there  is  certain  possession  of  all 
the  glories  and  treasures  of  heaven.  "  When  He  shall  appear,  those 
'  whose  life  is  hid  in  Him'  shall  appear  with  him  in  glory."  "  Where 
I  am,  ye  shall  be  also  I " 

But  this  is  only  the  lower  strata  of  the  Christian  faith.  There  is 
a  heaiity,  a  loveliness,  and  attraction,  in  Christ,  as  the  object  of  faith, 
before  which  every  lower  object  fades  into  insignificance.  It  creates 
a  new  affection,  which  casts  out  the  world  and  its  charms,  and  fills 
the  soul  with  the  highest,  most  enduring  passion.  For  the  greater 
the  drafts  of  the  believing  soul,  the  richer  the  reward ;  and  Christ 
becomes  the  more  precious,  the  more  the  soul  goes  out  to  seek  and 
find  Him ! 

Aye,  there  is  a  compulsion  of  love  in  Christ;  there  is  a  constrain- 
ing power  in  the  contemplation  of  His  person  and  His  love,  which 
captivates  the  soul,  and  carries  it  along  to  overcome  every  difficulty, 
to  triumph  over  every  obstacle,  to  endure  to  the  end,  and  find  its  life 
only  in  the  entire  and  eternal  consecration  of  every  thought,  feeling, 
faculty,  power,  means  of  soul,  body,  spirit,  life,  and  death :  "  For 
me  to  live  is  CHRIST  !  " 

And  there  is  in  Christ  a  promise  of  strength  and  help,  the  con- 
sciousness of  which  becomes  an  impenetrable  coat  of  mail,  from 
which  every  arrow  of  terror  or  fear  falls  off,  and  a  source  of  power 
which  no  human  trust  could  give  :  "  My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee  ! " 
sufficient  in  the  day  of  prosperity,  when  ease  and  riches  may  betray 
our  faith;  sufficient  in  the  hour  of  temptation  and  the  season  of 
trial,  when  the  remnant  of  sin  may  start  anew  into  life,  and  fear  may 
shake  the  heart;  sufficient  to  break  every  fetter;  sufficient  to  bear 
meekly  the  thorn  in  the  flesh;  sufficient  to  carry  us  triumphantly 
through  the  battle  of  life  ! 

If  Christ  be  our  object  of  faith,  if  Christ  our  life;  if  we  are  in 


174  THE   POWER   OF  FAITH. 

Christ,  and  have  our  being,  our  hopes  and  aims,  our  strength  and 
righteousness,  our  will  and  heaven  in  Him,  it  becomes  the  centre 
from  which  radiate  new  light  and  life  and  strength,  new  thoughts 
and  feelings  and  hopes,  upon  our  whole  existence  and  all  the  objects 
around  us.  "All  things  become  new;"  the  truth  is  revealed  "as  it 
is  in  Jesus."  Sin  is  crimson  with  the  blood  of  Christ.  Mercy  sure 
and  precious  in  the  gift  of  the  Only-begotten ;  self  abased  in  the 
righteousness  of  faith ;  strength  unconquerable  in  the  abiding  pres- 
ence and  love  of  Him  "  to  whom  all  power  is  given,  in  heaven  and  in 
earth ; "  holiness,  the  very  craving  of  the  soul,  because  it  changes  us 
into  the  image  of  Christ !  This  is  the  faith  which  nursed  the  heroes 
of  the  Bible  and  the  church — a  St.  Paul,  a  Luther,  Henry  Martyn ! 

Ah !  brethren,  this  faith — this  faith  in  the  atoning  power  of  Christ's 
death,  in  the  prevailing  efficacy  of  His  intercession,  in  the  fault- 
less plea  of  His  righteousness,  the  certain  presence  of  His  spirit,  in 
the  unalterable  faithfulness  of  His  love — it  can  do  all  things,  and  it 
can  hear  all  things.  Christ  always  xoith  me,  sharing  my  cross  and 
bearing  my  burden.  Christ  always  xoith  me,  giving  me  His  grace, 
and  working  in  me  "  to  will  and  to  do."  Christ  always  with  me,  in 
the  hour  of  temptation,  to  cry  to  Him,  "  Lord,  save,  or  I  perish," 
and  feel  His  helping  hand;  in  the  hour  of  weakness,  to  cry,  "Lord, 
increase  my  faith  " — "  Lord,  I  believe;  help  Thou  my  unbelief; "  arid 
to  learn  that,  "  when  I  am  weak,  then  I  am  strong."  Christ  always 
with  me,  with  me,  in  the  trials  of  this  life,  "  as  thy  days,  so  shall 
thy  strength  be ! "  with  me  in  the  hour  of  death,  "because  I  live,  ye 
shall  live  also."  Aye,  loho  is  he  that  overcometh  the  world,  but  he 
who  hclieveth  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God  ?  Yes,  "  all  things  are 
possible  to  him  that  believeth ! " 

He  looks  upon  his  sins  buried  in  the  sea  of  blood  that  flows  from 
Golgotha,  and  cries  victory !  He  raises  his  eye  trustfully  to  Jesus, 
the  author  and  finisher  of  his  faith,  assured  that  there  is  no'  condem- 
nation for  him  in  Christ,  and  cries  victory !  He  passes  the  allure- 
ments of  sin,  and  they  fade  before  the  glory  of  heaven,  which  is  shed 
on  his  path,  and  cries  victory !  He  meets  the  enemy,  who  like  a  de- 
vouring lion  obstructs  his  path,  and  with  the  Spirit's  sword  he  slays 
the  fiend,  and  cries  victory !  Death  comes  and  lays  his  icy  hand 
upon  the  heart ;  but  heaxen  is  open,  and  the  Kedeemer,  standing  on 
the  right  hand  of  power,  beckons  the  travelling  soul  to  seize  the 
crown  of  glory,  and,  with  his  last  breath,  he  cries  victory !     The  por- 


THE   POWER   OF   FAITH.  175 

tals  of  heaven  open,  and  the  hosts  of  angels  and  archangels,  wel- 
coming the  soul  of  the  faithful,  shout  victory,  victory !  And,  wel- 
comed by  the  Lamb  of  God  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  raised  out 
of  the  life  of  faith  to  the  life  of  sight,  out  of  hope  to  fruition,  his 
prayers  are  changed  to  praises ;  and  the  armies  of  souls,  redeemed 
like  him  by  faith  in  Christ,  join  in  the  song  of  jubilee,  "Thanks, 
thanks  be  unto  god,  "who  giveth  us  the  victory  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  1 " 


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178  REPENTANCE   AND    CONVERSION. 

warranted  terms  of  salvation  are  yet  to  he  complied  loitli  by  some  of 
you,  if  you  are  to  escape  the  death  that  never  dies,  lij  jJreaching, 
God  saves  them  that  truly  repent  and  turn  to  Him.  Our  business, 
in  preaching,  is  to  bring  the  truths,  whereby  God  convicts  and  con- 
verts sinners  and  edifies  believers  in  the  ways  of  holiness  and  peace, 
home  to  their  consciousness  and  hearts.  I  come,  then,  to  urge  this 
message,  in  the  name  of  God,  upon  all  whom  it  concerns — "  Repent 

YE  THEREFORE,  AND  BE  CONVERTED." 

Plain,  straightforward  language  is  consistent  with  true  kindness, 
and  best  becomes  this  theme ;  with  such  language  would  I  speak  to 
my  fellow  men — my  fellow  sinners. 

In  addressing  you  as  sinners,  let  it  be  understood  that  you  are  7iot 
arraigned,  nor  called  upon  to  "  repent  and  be  converted,"  upon  the 
ground  that  you  are  exceptions  in  the  scale  of  general  morality,  or 
that  you  are  more  ungodly  than  your  impenitent  and  unconverted 
neighbors  and  acquaintance  around  you.  Our  Saviour. made  no  such 
discriminations  in  His  preaching;  but  among  sinners  of  every  grade, 
and  of  all  social  positions,  and  in  every  path  of  wrong-doing,  He  and 
His  true  disciples  went  everywhere,  urging  the  same  immediate  duty, 
and  enforcing  the  appeal  upon  all  with  the  same  solemn  and  tre- 
mendous alternative  of  the  s'oul'g  eternal  ruin. 

A  sinner — be  it  then  observed — is  one  who  is  out  of  the  right  loay ;  ■ 
it  matters  not  by  what  particular  path  he  departs  from  God,  or  by 
what  particular  forms  of  sin  his  alienation  of  heart  and  life  is  distin- 
guished ;  he  is  one  of  that  great  multitude  of  whom  the  world  is  so 
full,  of  whom  God  has  declared,  •'  They  are  ALL  gone  out  of  the 
way." 

Among  a  thousand,  yea,  ten  thousand  sinners,  there  may  not  be 
found  any  two  alihe  in  the  outwa,rd  manifestation  of  the  alienation 
of  their  hearts  from  God,  their  true  and  proper  sovereign;  and  yet,  as 
a?Mack  the  predominant  principle  of  genuine  allegiance  to  God,  tlds 
is  the  just  ground  of  His  complaint  against  them,  and  of  their  con- 
demnation in  His  sight ;  and  upon  this  basis  the  text  is  applicable  to 
each  one  of  their  entire  number — to  one  as  logically  alid  as  impera- 
tively as  to  another.  This  statement  and  view  of  the  case  must,  I 
think,  be  readily  comprehended  and  assented  to  by  all  intelligent 
and  candid  minds.  Let  it  be  supposed,  by  way  of  illustration,  that, 
as  a  father  or  master,  you  discover  a  predominant  disposition  in  your 
household,  among  your  children  and  servants,  to  neglect  your  proper 


RErENTANCE   AND    CONVERSION.  179 

claims  upon  their  regards  and  dutiful  services ;  your  righteous  au- 
thor-ty  is  not  submitted  to  in  the  true  spirit  of  reverence  and  love  by 
any  of  them.  No  two  of  them,  it  may  be,  act  out  their  disloyalty  in 
/Ac  some  way.  This  one  uses  your  name  disrespectfully;  that  one 
appropriates  to  his  own  selfish  use  and  ends  the  supplies  of  the  family, 
or  the  individual  gifts  conferred,  without  any  proper  appreciation  of 
your  cr>,reful  and  kind  provision  and  bestowments;  another  heedlessly 
tramples  upon  the  orderly  regulations  of  the  household,  producing 
confusion  and  waste.  Your  approbation  is  not  prized;  your  honor' 
is  not  consulted;  your  interests  are  not  contemplated;  and  in  respect 
of  each  and  all  of  them  you  find  occasion,  in  the  sorrow  of  grieved 
love  and  despised  authority,  to  exclaim,  "  If  I  be  a  father,  where  is 
mine  honor?  If  I  be  a  master,  where  is  my  fear?"  In  such  a  case, 
the  recital  of  the  different  wrongs  done  by  each — the  profanity  of 
this,  the  selfishness  of  that,  the  heedlessness  of  another,  the  various 
vices  and  debasing  associations,  habits,  and  resorts — all  of  these  will 
painfully  affect  you,  each  perhaps  in  a  different  way  and  degree;  but 
the  root  of  the  difficulty,  and  the  common  cavise  of  complaint  with 
them  all,  is,  that  they  are  alike  alienated  in  heart  from  you;  they 
are  all  "  gone  out  of  the  way."  To  sit  down  and  discriminate  as  to 
the  precise  and  distinguishing  forms  and  paths  of  their  rebellion — 
to  cast  up  the  exact  amount  and  degree  of  their  several  offences — 
this  will  not  lead  to  the  peace  of  your  mind,  nor  will  it  procure  the 
approbation  of  your  judgment  or  heart  for  any  one  6f  them.  More- 
over, should  this  individual  offender  seek  to  justify  himself,  because, 
forsooth,  he  had  not  committed  the  offence  peculiar  to  another ;  or 
that  one  claim  your  favor  because  his  course  had  been  less  public, 
or  possibly  less  injurious  or  shameful  than  that  of  some  others — 
these  several  pleadings  at  self-justification  would  be,  in  themselves, 
offensive,  while  as  yet  genuine  love  and  loyalty  were  wanting  in  them 
all. 

The  self-justification  of  one,  at  the  expense  of  another,  where  all 
were  "  out  of  the  icay,"  would  virtually  be  the  setting  up  of  sin,  in 
some  form  and  degree,  as  the  law  of  your  household ;  it  could  be 
regarded  only  by  you  as  a  subtle  plea/o>-  sin,  and  for  each  individual's 
preferred  mode  of  transgression ;  thus  there  would  be  added  to  the 
injury  first  done  to  your  authority  and  feelings,  an  insult  to  your 
purity  and  good  sense.  What  you  would  most  earnestly  desire,  and 
most  righteously  demand,  would  be — that  each  and  every  one  of 


180  REPENTANCE  AND  CONVERSION. 

them  should  immediately  and  truly  "  repent  and  be  converted  " 
from  his  way;  and  in  every  case  of  genuine  repentance  and  conver- 
sion that  might  occur,  there  would  be  this  feeling  common  to  them 
all — "  Against  thee  have  I  sinned,  and  done  this  evil  in  thy  sight, 
and  am  not  worthy  to  be  owned  as  thy  child,  or  servant."  Each  one 
would  see  and  feel  his  own  sin  most  clearly  and  most  deeply. 

It  is  alienation  of  the  heart  from  God  that  opens  the  door  and 
leads  the  way  to  all  the  outward  forms  of  sin.  This  it  is  that  gives 
the  sinner  up  to  the  various  forms  of  temptation  which  may  assail 
him.  In //its  he  diverges  from  the  right  way;  and  tliis  alienation 
of  the  heart  from  God  is  the  corrupt  stream  and  force  which  sets  in 
motion  all  the  wheels  of  transgression. 

The  poison  of  the  intoxicating  cup  may  make  one  man  taciturn, 
another  noisy,  another  mirthful,  another  profane,  another  pugna- 
cious— all  alike  drunken  and  debased,  deranged  and  demoralized ; 
so  the  poison  of  apostacy  in  heart  from  God  may  put  on  innumerable 
forms  of  debasement,  and  work  out  ever-varying  kinds  of  mischief, 
and  there  shall  possibly  be  found  as  many  kinds  of  sinners  as  there 
are  individual  men,  still  one  thing  is  true  of  them  all — each  one  has 
departed  from  God,  each  is  devoid  of  holiness,  each  is  obnoxious  to 
the  Divine  displeasure,  and  iii  the  way  to  hell.  Therefore,  to  each 
one  does  the  appeal  of  the  text  apply  with  equal  fureo,  "Repeat 

AND   BE   converted." 

The  disposition,  so  common  in  the  world  among  sinners  of  different 
classes,  or  of  the  same  general  class,  to  compare  themselves  one  with 
another,  and  to  justify  themselves,  each  in  his  own  course  of  aliena- 
tion from  God,  in  his  impenitent  and  unconverted  state  and  way, 
indicates  most  clearly  an  "  evil  heart,"  opposed  to  the  holy  claims 
and  righteous  rule  of  Jehovah.  This  disposition  is  utterly  at  vari- 
ance with  right  apprehensions  of  the  attributes  and  honor  of  God, 
and  cannot  coexist  with  true  reverence  for  His  law,  or  penitence  for 
sin.  Indeed,  where  true  penitence  is  felt,  whilst  each  sinner  will 
deplore  the  sins  of  othersy  be  they  the  same  or  different  from  his  own, 
he  will  be  apt  to  think  worse  of  himself  \\\?iX\  of  othfers,  inasmuch  as 
iti.s  the  proper  office  of  the  individual  conscience  in  the  bosom  of  a 
man  to  press  upon  him  the  searching  authority  of  his  Maker  and 
Judge,  to  bring  up  into, absorbing  view  and  to  produce  an  abasing 
sense  of  his  own  depravity  and  guilt. 

Conscience,  as  a  witness  for  God  and  an  accuser  of  the  individual 


REPENTANCE  AND  CONVERSION.  181 

man  for  his  own  sins  against  God,  to  his  own  shame  and  peril,  drives 
the  truly  convicted  and  penitent  man  away  from  all  refuges  such  as 
the  unhumbled  and  impenitent  seek  to  find  in  the  greater  or  less 
sins  of  other  men. 

The  average  impiety  of  other  men  around  him  is  no  shield  or 
ground  of  justification  to  one  who  is  disposed  to  he  honest  with 
himself  and  with  his  Maker.  A  petty  defaulter,  who  should  plead 
exemption  from  the  duty  of  repentance  and  convei'siou,  or  from  the 
enforcement  of  the  sanctions  of  law,  upon  the  ground  that  there  were 
many  other  instances  of  defalcation  as  bad  or  even  worse  than  his 
own,  virtually  repudiates  the  law  of  honesty,  and  pleads  for  a  license 
to  commit  repeated  petty  frauds.  Such  a  plea  is  subversive  of  the 
primary  and  fundamental  principles  of  virtue  and  integrity,  and  a 
defence  of  the  principle  and  practice  of  sin.  Such  an  advocacy  of  rt 
little  defakaiion,  or  wrong  of  any  kind  or  degree,  done  toward  God 
or  man,  is,  in  itself,  one  of  the  most  high-handed  insults  to  God,  and 
one  of  the  most  injurious  sentiments  among  men  that  can  be  com- 
mitted or  proclaimed.  It  goes  to  subvert  the  first  ideas  of  moral 
virtue.  It  saps  the  foundations  of  private  integrity  and  public  jus- 
tice. Give  it  play  and  room,  let  it  work  out  its  legitimate  results 
unrestrained,  and  it  would  dethrone  God  himself. 

What  should  we  say  of  a  worshipper  of  graven  images,  arraigned 
before  his  Maker  for  that  offence,  who  should  exci^se  himself,  and 
decline  immediate  repentance  and  conversion,  upon  the  plea  that  his 
neighbors  worshipped  a  greater  number  of  idols,  or  idols  of  a  greater 
size  than  his  own?  He  pleads  for  his  own  idolatry  !  Be  it  but  one 
image,  and  that  a  little  one,  a  cheap  one,  he  pleads  for  it ;  and  in 
pleading  for  that  one  idol,  however  small,  he  pleads  against  the  only 
living  and  true  God,  and  for  idolatry  in  the  principle  of  the  thing. 
That  little  idol,  harbored  and  defended,  shows  a  heart  quite  ''  gone 
out  of  the  way."  Thus  the  habitual  cherishing  and  advocacy  of  the 
least  of  all  sins,  (as  men  are  accustomed  to  speak  of  "  little  sins,"") 
and  a  refusal  to  ''  repent  and  be  converted,"  proves  a  heart  stoutly 
opposed  to  God  and  holiness,  in  league  with  the  devil,  and  an  abetter 
of  moral  anarchy. 

We  may  compassionate  infirm  humanity,  when,  under  the  force 
of  strong  and  sudden  temptation,  it  falls  into  sin;  and  we  may  re- 
joice over  it  with  holy  joy  when,  in  self-condemning  abasement,  it 
prostrates  itself  before  God  in  the  true  spirit  of  repentance  and  con- 


182  REPENTANCE   AND    CONVERSION. 

version ;  for  such  self-abasement,  in  view  of  its  offence  against  the 
Divine  rule  of  truth  and  purity,  is  true  dignity  and  honor.  But  when 
apostate  humanity  habituates  itself  to  known  sin,  in  any  form  or 
degree,  and  pleads  for  it  under  any  pretext,  refusing  to  "  repent  and 
be  converted,"  then,  as  we  are  true  to  God  and  moral  virtue,  we 
must  approve  of  the  solemn  expostulation  and  warning  of  the  Bible, 
wherein  the  God  of  Mercy  and  of  Justice  exclaims,  "I  will  judge 
you,  0  house  of  Israel,  every  one  according  to  his  vxiy,  saith  the  Lord 
God.  Repent,  and  turn  yourselves  from  all  your  traegressions ;  so 
iniquity  shall  not  prove  your  ruin." 

It  is  doubtless  true  that  there  are  different  degrees  of  guilt  among 
impenitent  and  unconverted  men,  of  which  God  himself  is  the  only 
infallible  judge;  but  as  the  spirit  of  sin  is  a  spirit  of  delusion,  and 
as  every  sinner  is  one  to  whom  the  language  of  inspiration  may  be 
applied,  "  a  deceived  heart  hath  turned  him  aside,  that  he  cannot  de- 
liver his  sold,  nor  say  is  there  not  a  lie  in  my  right  hand?"  hence  it 
follows  that  the  sinner,  great  or  small,  is  not  a  competent  witness  in 
his  own  case.  Each  deceived  and  deceitful  heart,  in  love  with  its 
own  sins,  and  prone  to  evade  the  spirituality  and  extent  of  the  law 
of  God — prone,  like  Adam  and  Eve  in  the  first  transgression,  to  ex- 
culpate itself  at  the  expense  of  others — prone  to  magnify  the  mote 
in  a  brother's  eye,  and  to  be  unconscious  of  the  beam  in  its  own — 
such  a  heart  will  fail  to  make  a  proper  estimate  of  its  own  inward 
depravity,  or  the  evil  of  its  outward  conduct. 

God  only  knows,  and  can  reveal,  the  evil  nature  of  sin.  He  has 
expressed  His  estimate  of  it  in  the  expulsion  from  paradise,  and  the 
blight  sent  upon  the  entire  earth  as  its  theatre.  He  has  expressed  it 
in  one  general  deluge  by  water,  and  in  one  partial  destruction  by  fire. 
He  has  expressed  it  in  the  agonies  of  His  Son  Jesus  Christ  on  the 
Cross,  endured  in  behalf  of  those  who  are  guilty  of  sin ;  aqd  in  the 
fore-threatened  and  fore-shadowed  doom  of  the  impenitent  and  un- 
converted, in  the  pains  of  hell  forever.  "  The  soul  that  sinneth,  it 
shall  die." 

In  view,  then,  of  the  immeasurable  and  inexpressible  baseness  and 
deinerit  of  all  sin,  considered  as  opjyosition  to  infinite  holiness,  good- 
ness, truth,  love,  and  majesty  ;  and  in  view  of  the  deceiving  power  of 
sin  in  the  heart  where  it  dwells,  it  would  seem  safe  for  each  man  to 
act  upon  the  apprehension,  at  least,  that  his  heart  and  his  sins  may  be 
as  blind  and  as  base  as  the  heart  and  sins  of  any  other  man  possess- 


REPENTANCE   AND   CONVERSION.  183 

ing  equal  light  and  privileges.  It  is  certain  that  no  man,  especially 
no  impenitent  and  uncouvcrtcd  man,  will  ever  over-estimate  the  cor- 
ruption of  his  own  heart  or  the  guilt  of  his  own  transgressions  against 
the  infinitely  holy  God.  And  we  have  already  seen  that  the  dispo- 
sition to  plead  even  for  a  supposed  "  little  sin  "  is  the  very  height  of 
oflFending. 

Thus  are  we  all,  as  sinners,  g7'eat  or  small — and  of  this  God  is  the 
only  proper  judge — all  shut  up  to  the  solemn  and  immediate  obliga- 
tion of  repentance  and  conversion.  To  this  solemn  and  immediate 
duty,  interest,  and  privilege,  it  is  the  design  of  this  discourse  to  per- 
suade the  impenitent  and  unconverted,  llepentance  or  perdition  are 
the  alternatives  in  your  case.  ''  Except  ye  repent,"  said  the  faithful, 
loving  Jesus,  to  a  promiscuous  assembly  of  sinners,  "  ye  shall  all  like- 
wise perish." 

Casting  aside  all  idle  speculations,  it  is  not  difficult  for  candid 
minds  to  understand  the  nature  of  true  repentance  and  conversion. 
The  Holy  Scriptures  reveal  the  character  and  will  of  God — the  one 
every  way  worthy  of  supreme  reverence,  adoration,  and  love;  the 
otlier  a  sublimely  and  supremely  excellent  and  authoritative  rule  of 
feeling  and  action,  in  every  relation  and  path  of  life.  They  repre- 
sent this  world,  with  all  its  objects  and  interests,  as  the  moral  domain 
of  Jehovah,  where  all  the  faculties  of  the  souls  and  bodies  of  men 
may  and  ought  to  be  employed  in  the  grateful  and  obedient  recog- 
nition and  improvement  of  every  gift  of  His  bounty,  and  ordering  of 
His  AVord  and  providence,  to  His  honor  and  glory.  THIS  IS  THE 
RIGHT  WAY — the  way  of  truth,  integrity,  and  honor ;  of  real  hap- 
piness and  peace  for  mankind.  This  way  it  was  in  which  the  race 
started  its  career  in  Eden.  God  smiled,  and  the  human  soul  was 
glad.  Love,  gratitude,  and  cheerful  duty,  were  the  sweetest  per- 
fumes of  paradise;  and  the  unclouded  morning  of  creation  witnessed 
the  offering  of  this  holy  incense  from  the  hearts  of  creatures  to  their 
approving  Creator.  This  way  has  been  departed  from  by  all  the 
descendants  of  apostate  Adam,  begotten  in  his  apostate  likeness,  and 
following  in  his  apostate  steps.  The  call  to  repentance  and  conver- 
sion is  a  call  from  GOD  to  His  creatures,  to  come  hack  to  Him,  to 
change  their  minds,  their  affections,  and  aims.  It  is  a  most  righteous 
call  for  God  to  make.  It  is  a  most  righteous  and  noble  obligation 
for  man,  the  sinner,  to  meet  and  respond  to  at  once,  without  evasion 
or  reserve. 


184  REPENTANCE  AND  CONVERSION. 

In  genuine  repentance,  the  seed  principle  of  opposition  toward 
God,  and  indifference  to  his  will  and  honor,  is  abjured,  with  virtuous 
shame  and  sorrow.  There  is  baseness,  disgrace,  and  peril,  in  sin,  and 
the  repentant  heart  realizes  and  confesses  it.  God's  order  of  things 
in  his  moral  government  is  right,  useful,  and  tends  to  His  glory  and 
the  good  of  His  creatures,  and  the  repentant  heart  assents  to  and 
rejoices  in  it.  The  way  of  apostacy  from  God  is  the  way  of  the  arch 
tempter,  and  of  all  bad  men ;  the  way  of  vice  and  all  crime ;  the  way 
of  delusion  and  folly  now,  and  of  hopeless  ruin  and  remorse  beyond 
the  unknown  limits  of  divine  forbearance. 

The  repenting  and  converting  soul — moved  thereto  by  just  views 
of  spiritual  and  eternal  things,  as  urged  upon  it  by  the  Word  and 
Spirit  of  God — trusting  in  the  graciously-proffered  remission  of  sins 
through  the  blood  of  Christ,  and  the  promised  aids  of  Divine  grace 
to  persevere  in  the  right  way,  comes  hack  to  God,  saying,  Forgive 
me  !     Uphold  me  !     Guide  me  !     Save  me  !  - 

Blessed  change  !  Blessed  is  the  soul  that  experiences  it !  It  is  a 
change  from  darkness  to  light — from  the  power  of  sin  and  Satan 
unto  God.  Moral  order  takes  the  place  of  impious  disorder  in  the 
heart.    Satan  is  dethroned,  and  God  is  enthroned  in  His  proper  place. 

All  who  love  God  and  truth,  and  who  take  pleasure  in  man's 
highest  interests — his  only  true  happiness — rejoice  over  this  change; 
the  good  on  earth  and  the  good  in  heaven  are  glad;  'Hhere  is  joy  in 
the  presence  of  the  angels  of  God,  over  one  sinner  that  repenteth." 

The  philanthropy  of  heaven  and  earth  is  in  deep  and  holy  sympa- 
thy with  this  triumph  of  truth  and  grace  in  the  penitent's  soul,  and 
the  echoing  refrain  swells  upward,  and  downward,  and  onward — 

"  0  how  divine,  how  sweot  the  joy,  • 

When  but  one  sinner  turns, 
And  with  an  humble,  broken  heart,  , 

His  sins  and  errors  mourns  ! 

"  Pleased  with  the  news,  the  saints  beloTT 
In  songs  their  tongues  employ ;  / 

Beyond  the  skies  the  tidings  go, 
And  heaven  is  filled  with  joy. 

"Well  pleased,  the  Father  sees  and  hears 

The  consci'ous  sinner's  moan ; 
Jesus  receives  him  in  His  arms, 

And  claims  him  for  His  own. 


REPENTANCE  AND  CONVERSION.  185 

"  Nor  angels  can  their  joys  contain, 

But  kindle  with  new  fire  : 
'The  sinner  lost  is  found,'  they  sing, 

And  strike  the  sounding  lyre." 

Repentance  and  conversion  is  no  abstract,  cold,  difficult  dogma 
of  religion,  but  a  thing  of  plain  and  practical  sense,  and  of  vital 
interest  and  experience.  Some  sinners — yea,  a  great  multitude — 
have  experienced  this  change,  and  are  examples  and  witnesses  for 
it,  in  heaven,  and  also  now  upon  the  earth.  This  experience  is" 
the  line  of  demarcation  between  all  that  is  pure  and  ennobling  and 
all  that  is  impure  and  corrupting  among  mankind. 

Why,  0  sinner,  with  these  motives  and  calls  from  the  revelations 
of  God,  itrged  upon  you  by  the  blessed  Spirit,  why  should  not  you 
REPENT  AND  TURN  TO  GOD  ?  The  delusion  of  sin  has  led 
you,  it  may  be,  far,  far  away  from  the  way  of  purity  and  peace.  That 
delusion,  strong  as  it  is  now,  grows  stronger  by  delay.  If  ever  saved, 
j-'ou  must  repent.  Continued  impenitency  is  itself  a  growing  vice  in 
the  heart,  and  crime  in  the  life.  It  is  iMerly  indefendhle ;  if  per- 
sisted in,  it  must  grieve  and  tend  to  quench  the  Spirit  of  God  from 
your  heart.  It  keeps  you  on  the  side  of  sin  and  guilt  in  this  world, 
thus  giving  all  the  force  of  your  example  to  public  irreligion.  It  may 
quite  possibly  be  said  of  some  of  you,  in  view  of  your  respective  po- 
sitions in  the  family  and  in  society,  as  the  Saviour  said  to  some  in 
IIIk  day,  "  Yc  shut  up  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  against  men;  for  ye 
neither  go  in  yourselves,  neither  suffer  ye  them  that  are  entering  to 
go  in."  Turn,  then.  Oh,  turn  now  to  God  in  Christ,  from  the 
world's  delusive  snares,  renouncing  all  for  God,  and  submitting  all 
to  God,  as  your  soul's  proper  sovereign  and  choice. 

If  it  were  a  matter  of  uncertain  propriety  to  which  you  are  urged, 
you  might  hesitate ;  but  this  change  is  divinely  appropriate. 

If  it  were  a  question  of  abstract  speculation,  you  might  content 
yourself  with  neutrality ;  but,  so  far  from  this,  it  is  your  personal, 
immediate,  chief  concern. 

Declining  or  deferring  immediate  repentance  and  conversion,  is  it 
not  obvious  that  you  give  moral  preference  to  that  which  is  evil,  over 
that  which  is  good?  and  do  you  not  virtually  .say  to  God  your  Maker 
and  Christ  your  Saviour,  "  Depart  from  me,  and  follow  me  no  more 
with  Divine  counsels  and  merciful  propo.sals?"  Do  you  not  virtually 
say  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  "  Depart  from  me,  and  leave  my  conscience  to 


186  REPENTANCE   AND    CONVERSION. 

slumber  in  sin,  my  heart  to  harden  in  impiety,  and  my  soul  under 
the  present  displeasure  and  the  suspended,  avenging  wrath  of  a  holy 
God?" 

Will  you  not,  now,  be  won  to  repentance  and  conversion — NOW  ? 

"Behold  the  SAVIOUR  at  thy  door! 
He  gently  knocks — has  knocked  before; 
Has  waited  long — is  waiting  still  ; 
You  treat  no  other  Friend  so  ill. 

"  Oh,  lovely  attitude  !     He  stands 

With  melting  heart  and  outstretched  hands ! 

0  matchless  kindness  !     And  He  shows 
This  matchless  kindness  to  His  foes. 

"Admit  Him  ;  for  the  human  breast 
Ne'er  entertained  so  kind  a  guest ; 
Admit  Him,  or  the  hour's  at  hand 
When  at  His  bar  denied  you'll  stand." 

Let  it  be  your  grateful  and  glad  response — 

"  Open  my  heart,  Lord  ;  enter  in ; 
Slay  every  foe,  and  conquer  sin. 

1  now  to  Thee  my  all  resign ; 

My  body,  soul,  and  all,  are  Thine." 


'IE  PROPHET  AND  TEE  KINa?  OK,  A  MESSAO 


UUi, 


,  or  the 
-  it 


hat.  alt  ho  V  !i;U- 

■1'      ai^J    ij'-    I  jj  .■    JL",  I    111    vi.rii.i     (;,'',iijl:    ■ "      '     '  ' :     i  lu.s    wunc.    uyUJi' 


■m  the  cflTiS'.^  and  antdftedent  of  human 

itc  earth,  where  thorecor' 
■    '''  over  the  re'-    '  ■»  '"  ' 
i'f  Qroolosrv.  bti 


igh  all  I 
aniversai^  h* 


:r!,  in  the  history 

\  agouy,  and 

• ;   the  Bible, 

1  bis  reloMon 


188  THE  PROPHET  AND  THE  KING  ; 

snatched  away  in  the  first  dawn  of  life ;  others  are  struck  down  in 
the  prime  of  manhood,  or  in  the  hlush  of  womanhood ;  others,  again, 
are  summoned  away,  stooping  under  the  weight  and  infirmity  of 
years.  Some  pine  away  under  the  slow  approaches  of  disease;  some 
are  hurried  ofi"  by  the  sudden  casualties  with  which  the  annals  of 
every-day  life  are  crowded;  while  multitudes,  like  the  leaves  of 
autumn  scattered  before  the  wind,  are  swept  away  by  the  blast  of  the 
pestilence,  or,  like  the  blades  of  grass  under  the  reaper's  hand,  are 
mowed  down  in  the  red  carnage  of  the  battle-field.  But  for  each  and 
all,  it  is  the  inevitable  doom — the  universal  appointment. 

Besides  this  universal  and  inevitable  character  of  death,  that 
which  invests  it  with  still  more  seriousness  and  importance  is  the 
true  meaning  of  the  event  itself.  Looking  at  death  simply  in  the 
light  of  nature,  as  the  point  of  departure  from  time— the  passage  in 
man's  historj-  where  he  pauses  to  look,  for  the  last  time,  on  the 
scenes  and  associations  of  this  world — it  is  a  critical  period.  But 
when  we  view  this  change  in  the  light  of  Revelation,  it  becomes  an 
event  a  thousand  times  more  critical  and  eventful.  It  is  no  longer 
the  shadowy  and  uncertain  region  where  the  great  thinkers  before 
Christ,  Socrates  and  Plato,  tried  in  vain  to  penetrate,  as  the  naviga- 
tors before  Columbus  could  see  across  the  Atlantic  nothing  but  an 
abyss  of  waters.  Nor  is  it  the  land  of  oblivion  and  eternal  sleep  into 
which  the  French  infidels  thought  they  could  convert  it  by  a  decree 
of  the  Convention. 

Jesus  Christ  has  crossed  the  waters,  and  discovered  the  new  world 
on  the  other  side.  Jesus  Christ  has  descended  into  those  silent  and 
shadowy  regions,  and  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light.  With 
the  chart  of  the  Bible  before  us,  death  is  discovered  as  a  landmark 
which  points  to  the  future,  as  w6ll  as  to  the  past — the  act  and  mode 
of  entrance  into  the  eternal  world.  The  essential  difi'erence  Ijetween 
the  soul  and  the  body  is  shown,  so  that  the  loss  and  disappearance  of 
the  one  in  the  grave  does  not  afi'ect  the  continued  life  and  conscious- 
ness of  the  other.  For  the  body  to  ''  return  to  the  dust "  js  for  the  spirit 
to  "return  to  God  who  gave  it;"  while  according  to  its  moral  and 
spiritual  fitness  or  unfitness  for  that  Holy  Presence,  will  be  its  place 
and  destiny  in  the  invisible  world.  These  are  the  clear  and  unmis- 
takable revelations  of  that  <Word  which  all  the  principles  of  sound 
criticism  and  historic  faith  compel  us  to  receive  as  the  Word  of  the 
true  and  living  God.     To  die,  according  to  this  testimony,  is  to 


OR,    A    MESSAGE    FROM    GOD.  189 

nass  at  once  into  the  presence  of  our  Maker  and  Judge.  It  is  to 
have  all  those  trmendous  revelations  of  the  Bible,  which  now  seem 
so  distant  i-nd  so  shadowy,  converted  into  objects  of  intense  and  im- 
mediate consciousness.  For  the  believer  in  the  one  Saviour,  the  one 
great  salvation,  it  is  to  enter  into  rest — it  is  to  be  "  present  with  his 
Lord."  For  the  despiser  of  that  Saviour,  the  neglecter  of  that  great 
salvation,  it  is  to  pass  away  to  no  intermediate  place,  no  purgatorial 
fires,  but  to  go  with  Judas  to  "  his  own  place" — to  be  cast,  with  the 
unprofitable  servant,  into  "  outer  darkness,"  where  "  the  worm  dieth 
not,  and  the  fire  is  not  quenched."  To  all  intents  and  purposes, 
then,  the  hour  of  death  is  the  day  of  judgment  for  every  man.  What- 
ever additional  solemnity  the  more  public  transactions  of  the  last  day 
may  give  to  the  decisions  of  that  judgment,  if  the  Bible  teaches  any- 
thing, it  teaches  that  those  decisions  are  virtually  made  and  enforced 
in  the  hour  of  death.  Then  for  each  and  all,  as  death  ushers  them 
separately  and  yet  unceasingly  into  that  interview  with  God,  the 
trumpet  sounds,  the  great  white  throne  is  erected,  and  the  sentence 
goes  forth  which  meets  the  spirit  to  bless  and  save,  or  to  overwhelm 
and  destroy  it  forever. 

Now.  while  to  most,  if  not  all,  of  those  who  may  glance  over  these 
lines,  these  reflections  are  among  the  admitted  articles  of  their  belief, 
the  singular  fact  here  meets  us,  that  of  all  events  and  occurrences  in 
this  world,  not  one  is  so  little  regarded  or  anticipated  as  this  great 
hour  of  crisis  anxl  doom,  which  strikes  for  every  man  in  death. 
Everywhere  else,  in  all  that  relates  to  this  world,  men  will  act  with 
forethought  and  sagacity.  Every  step  of  the  way  will  be  accurately 
surveyed — all  their  plans  and  speculations  arranged  with  the  utmost 
system  and  punctuality — not  a  domestic  comfort,  not  a  pecuniary 
interest,  not  a  dollar,  not  a  cent,  overlooked.  But  as  soon  as  death 
rises  up  and  claims  their  consideration — this  most  momentous  of  all 
events  in  their  history — at  once,  and  for  the  first  time,  a  strange 
lethargy  seizes  upon  the  soul,  all  its  energies  are  paralyzed,  and  the 
whole  subject  is  entertained  with  impatience,  if  not  speedily  and 
entirely  dismissed.  Every  man's  conscience  will  testify  to  the  fact. 
Under  all  the  circumstances,  it  is  an  indifi"erence  so  strange,  so  con- 
trary to  those  laws  and  principles  which  usually  govern  the  human 
mind,  that  there  is  but  one  explanation  of  it.  The  Word  of  God 
supplies  that  explanation.  Man,  awake  everywhere  else,  is  asleep 
here ;  seeing  everywhere  else,  is  blind  here ;  living  with  all  the  en- 


190  THE  PROPHET  AND  THE  KING; 

ergies  and  sensibilities  of  his  nature  for  this  world,  is  dead,  in  all  the 
best  feelings  and  powers  of  his  soul,  to  the  world  to  come. 

What  Foster  says  of  conscience,  rising  up  and  rebuking  the  pas- 
sions of  the  heart,  may  be  said  of  this  thought  of  death,  as  it  flashes 
across  the  chambers  of  the  soul;  it  comes  and  stands,  as  some  stern 
and  unwelcome  intruder  among  a  company  of  gay  revellers.  Men 
who  are  lovers  of  pleasure  more  than  lovers  of  God  cannot  be  com- 
fortable with  either  the  rebuke  of  conscience  or  the  thought  of  death. 
Accordingly,  they  turn  away  from  both.  They  are  ingenious  and 
uni"emitting  in  their  efforts  to  devise  methods  to  silence  the  re- 
proaches of  the  one,  and  to  drown  the  very  thought  of  the  other. 
As  the  cuttle-fish  hides  itself  from  its  pursuer  in  the  dark  fluid  with 
which  it  discolors  the  surrounding  water,  so  the  soul,  under  the 
cloud  and  cover  of  its  vain  speculations,  seeks  to  evade  the  pursuit 
of  conscience,  and  the  very  thought  of  that  calamity  which  impends 
over  it  in  death.  Turning  to  the  cares  of  life,  the  anxieties  and 
engrossments  of  business,  men  imagine  that  they  find  in  these  tem- 
poral things  which  God  commands,  a  plea  for  indifference  in  those 
eternal  things  where  God  equally  commands ;  and  while  the  prophet 
warns,  or  the  apostle  reasons,  they  deem  it  a  sufficient  answer  to  each 
and  every  monitor,  '^Go  thy  way  for  this  time;  when  we  have  a  con- 
venient season,  we  will  call  for  thee."  Or  else,  plunging  into  the' 
whirl  of  fashionable  life,  and  drinking  deep  at  the  fountains  of  for- 
bidden pleasure,  they  are  soothed  by  the  songs  of  the  enchantress, 
and  lulled  into  the  oblivious  slumbers  of  spiritual  death,,  until  the 
voice  of  conscience  is  drowned,  the  alarms  of  death  are  silenced,  the 
very  power  of  reflection  is  paralyzed,  while  their  language,  incoherent 
and  murmuring  under  the  delirium  of  sin,  is  that  of  the  dying  Mira- 
beau — the  language  of  a  heart,  where  the  profligacy  and  chilling 
materialism  of  his  age  had  crushed  out  every  higher  thought  and 
holier  aspiration — "  Crown  me  with  flowers,  sprinkle  me  with  per- 
fumes, that  I  may  enter  upon  eternal  sleep." 

The  prophet  'warns  the  king  to  set  hi's  house  in  order. 

In  these  warnings  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  truth  6f  a  future  life 
is  strikingly  exhibited.  The  immortality  of  the  soul,  the  future  and 
endless  destiny  of  man,  has  been  "brought  to  light" — clearly  re- 
vealed in  the  New  Testament.  All  must  live,  whatever  be-the  mean- 
ing of  that  life ;  all  must  rise  again,  whatever  be  the  character  of 
that  resurrection.     But  underlying  all  these  passages  in  the  Old 


GE,    A  3IESSAGE   FROM   GOD.  191 

Testament — passages  where  the  notes  of  warning  and  preparation  are 
so  distinctly  sounded — the  same  truth  may  he  discovered.  The  argu- 
ment is  indirect,  but,  on  that  very  account,  more  striking.  For  why, 
it  may  be  asked,  warn  us  to  "  set  our  house  in  order,"  or  prepare  at 
all  for  death,  if  there  is  to  be  no  judgment  after  it — no  existence 
beyond  the  grave,  where  that  judgment  is  to  be  realized.  If  death 
is  an  eternal  sleep,  where  our  being  and  the  responsibility  attached 
to  it  is  to  be  buried  forever,  then  let  our  house  be  in  disorder, 
let  us  sleep  on  in  worldliuess,  unbelief,  and  sin.  We  can  smile  at  all 
the  warnings  of  all  the  prophets  in  the  world ;  we  can  despise  the 
threatenings  of  the  Almighty  himself.  Instead  of  setting  our  house 
in  order,  and  stirring  ourselves  to  prepare  for  death,  we  can  afford  to 
banish  the  whole  subject  from  our  minds,  while  we  say,  each  to  him- 
self and  to  his  neighbor,  ''Take  thine  ease;  eat,  drink,  and  be 
merry ; "  "  to-morrow  we  die.'' 

We  may  discover,  then,  from  these  very  warnings,  so  constantly 
sounded  in  the  Old  Testament,  as  well  as  from  the  clearer  revela- 
tions of  the  New,  the  great  truth  of  life  and  immortality  as  the  ap- 
pointed destiny  of  man. 

Side  by  side,  however,  with  this  truth  of  a  future  life,  stands 
another,  which  gives  it  additional  seriousness  and  importance.  Man 
is  immortal ;  but  man,  as  he  is,  has  no  assurance  that  that  immor- 
tality will  be  for  him  a  state  of  happiness,  or  even  of  safety.  The 
truth  is,  the  kingV  house  is  iu  disorder,  and  in  no  state  to  meet  the 
scrutiny  of  Him  who  comes  to  search  Jerusalem  with  caudles.  Men 
talk  of  their  innocence,  and  boast  of  their  deportment  before  the 
world.  But,  after  all,  this  is  but  an  evasion  of  the  question,  which 
is  not  as  to  any  appearance  before  men,  but  as  to  the  true  state  of 
the  heart  before  God.  This  vague  statement  of  the  case  is  a  style 
of  pleasing  rhetoric  and  accommodating  logic,  which  may  do  very 
well  in  hours  of  frivolity ;  but  let  that  illusion,  in  which  we  love  to 
wrap  ourselves,  be  dispelled  by  the  touch  of  some  serious  calamity, 
and  these  complacent  thoughts  and  proud  imaginations  are  broken 
up  as  the  mists  of  morning  are  scattered  under  the  touch  of  the 
solar  rays. 

The  very  thought  of  death,  though  the  event  itself  may  be  at  a 
distance,  is  full  of  terror  to  the  human  heart.  This,  in  one  sense, 
may  be  regarded  as  a  wise  safeguard  which  has  been  implanted  by 
God  for  the  preservation  of  life.    But  where  life  has  lost  all  its 


192  THE  PROPHET  AND  THE  KING  ; 

charm  and  attractiveness,  that  terror  and  misgiving  is  still  associated 
with  death.  Another  element,  then,  must  enter  into  that  fear  of 
death,  which  seems  to  lie  at  the  very  foundation  of  our  nature.  And 
what  is  this  but  that  deep  and  ineradicable  conviction  of  sin  which 
every  human  being  carries  in  his  bosom — the  consciousness  of  guilt, 
and  consequent  unfitness  for  the  presence  of  the  holy  and  omniscient 
Judge. 

.  And  if  the  simple  thought  of  death,  and  the  misgiving  that 
thought  occasions,  reveals  this  fact,  we  are  not  surprised  that  actual 
contact  with  the  event  itself  invariably  confirms  thes'fe  impressions. 
As  death  approaches,  how  complete  the  change  which  begins  to  take 
place  in  all  our  views  and  feelings !  Those  sins  which  we  had  passed 
over  so  lightly  are  at  once  invested  with  alarming  magnitude.  That 
view  of  the  Supreme  Being  which  could  overlook  His  holiness 
and  justice,  and,  by  the  imputation  of  a  blind  and  indiscriminate 
mercy,  reduce  Him  to  the  level  of  human  weakness,  and  make  Him 
"altogether  such  an  one  as  ourselves,"  gives  place  to  some  just  con- 
ception of  His  character  as  the  moral  Governor  of  the  Universe. 
That  oversight  of  Christ,  the  most  wonderful  being  that  ever 
challenged  the  attention  of  the  world — an  oversight  in  which  we 
could  persist  with  such  singular  deliberation  and  complacency — rises 
up,  and  is  seen,  perhaps,  for  the  first  time,  in  the  light  in  which  -it 
is  discovered  in  the  Gospel,  as  the  neglect  of  the  one  Saviour,  and 
the  one  great  salvation.  Those  excuses  we  could  once  urge  with  so 
much  confidence  and  composure,  while  we  attempted  to  justify  our 
indifference  to  religion,  and  our  devotion  to  the  world  —  excuses 
drawn  from  a  thousand  sources — from  the  difiiculties  of  Providence, 
as  if  these  difficulties  did  not  constitute  the  great  trial  of  life  for 
all  —  from  the  inconsistencies  of  professed  Christians,  as  if  these 
sins  of  others  could  possibly  afi'ect  the  question  of  personal  duty — 
from  the  mysteries  connected  with  the  Divine  Being  and  government, 
as  if,  with  our  limited  vision,  we  could  scan  and  measure  those  mighty 
and  complicated  wheels  that  sweep  through  the  universe  in  the  vast- 
ness  of  their  dimensions,  and  embrace  eternity  in  the  grandeur  of  their 
movements — as  if  the  challenge  of  Jehovah  to  Job  were  not  a  sufficient 
answer  to  all  objections  which  our  ignorance  and  littleness  may  sug- 
gest— "  Where  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the  foundations  of  the  earth  ? 
Declare,  if  thou  hast  understanding  " — -these  sophistries  with  which 
we  could  once  beguile  ourselves,  while  we  declined  the  consideration 


OR,   A   MESSAGE   FROM   GOD.  193 

of  religion  and  its  claims — extenuations  of  our  guilt,  which,  in  the 
blindness  of  self-love,  we  invested  with  such  importance — all  begin  to 
fade  and  vanish  in  the  light  of  eternity,  as  the  dreams  which  amused 
or  troubled  the  sleeper  are  broken  up  and  scattered  when  the  morn- 
ing dawns  upon  his  slumbers.  The  experiences  of  some  may  seem 
to  be  at  variance  with  this  account  j  but  unless  the  poison  of  infidelity 
and  a  long  familiarity  with  sin  have  eaten  away  every  moral  sense 
and  instinct  of  the  soul,  the  approach  of  death  will  invariably  sug- 
gest these  views  and  awaken  these  apprehensions. 

Our  house  "  in  order  !  "  We,  with  the  evil  of  sin  unremedied  in 
our  nature,  ready  to  go  forth  and  meet  the  scrutiny  of  the  omnis- 
cient Judge !  ready  to  confront  that  God  whose  law  we  have  broken, 
that  Saviour  whose  love  we  have  despised  !  ready  to  have  the  record 
of  our  whole  life  unfolded,  and  to  challange  the  sentence  of  the 
righteous  and  impartial  Judge !  No !  with  all  the  illusions  of  which 
the  human  heart  is  capable,  it  can  scarcely  be  betrayed  into  one  so 
monstrous  as  this.  Our  house  is  all  in  disorder  and  confusion.  The 
chambers  of  imagery  within  are  crowded  with  tumultuous  passions, 
which  cannot  bear  the  inspection  of  the  Omniscient  Eye.  The  hard- 
ness of  the  heart,  the  frivolity  of  the  life,  the  eagerness  and  zest  with 
which  multitudes  are  rushing  into  scenes  so  fatal  to  every  principle 
of  piety,  all  testify  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  ruin  into  which  sin  has 
plunged  our  nature,  the  total  unfitness  of  man  for  the  inevitable  and 
tremendous  ordeal  of  the  coming  judgment.  Sin'has  involved  the 
whole  race  in  a  controversy  with  God — sin,  so  fearful  in  its  curse, 
and  so  far-reaching  in  its  results,  that  Isaac  Taylor  has  well  said  of 
it,  "  If  there  were  no  other  argument  for  a  future  life,  sin  would 
furnish  one  never  to  be  refuted ;  for  it  tells  of  a  cause  standing  over 
between  the  Judge  and  ourselves,  for  the  hearing  and  decision  of 
which^  a  time  must  certainly  come." 

The  king's  house  is  in  disorder.  But  as  the  warning  of  the  prophet 
rings  through  his  chamber,  he  turns  his  pale  face  to  the  wall,  and  in 
prayer  and  penitence  begins  to  set  his  house  in  order.  With  the 
mention  and  exposure  of  the  evil,  let  us  then  suggest  the  remedy  for 
this  disorder,  which  we  believe  God  has  mercifully  provided. 

Side  by  side  with  the  great  ''mystery  of  iniquity  "  stands  the  great 
mystery  of  redemption — these  two  equally  incompi^ehensible  mysteries 
in  the  history  of  this  world. 

When  the  judgments  of  God  were  upon  the  land  of  Egypt,  the 
13 


194  THE  PROPHET  AND  THE  KING; 

destroying  angel,  on  that  memorable  night,  entered  every  house  and 
slew  the  first-born  of  every  family  in  the  land.  More  dreadful  than 
that  destroying  angel,  sin  has  entered  the  inmost  life  and  home  of 
every  soul,  and  left  the  mark  and  the  curse  of  his  presence  on  every 
individual  of  the  great  family  of  man.  According  to  the  Divine 
appointment,  there  was  but  one  refuge  from  the  sword  of  the  destroy- 
ing angel — it  was  the  blood  which  God  commanded  Moses  to  sprinkle 
oh  the  door  posts  of  the  Israelites.  By  the  same  appointment,  there 
is  but  one  refuge  from  the  curse  and  condemnation  of  sin,  the  sprin- 
kling upon  the  guilty  soul  of  that  blood  which  was  typified-  by  the 
blood  on  the  door  posts  of  the  Israelites — "  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ, 
which  cleanseth  from  all  sin."  Christ  and  the  mystery  of  His  Cross, 
as  revealed  in  the  Gospel,  is  the  only  object  in  this  world  at  the 
presence  of  which  the  dark  and  disordered  house  of  the  human  heart 
can  be  restored  to  order  and  peace.  The  plan  may  be  thus  explained. 
Among  all  the  crowded  habitations  of  men.  His  was  the  only  house 
which  the  judgment  of  God  ever  pronounced  as  perfectly  in  order; 
among  all  the  millions  of  the  human  family,  He  was  the  only  Being 
who,  at  the  close  of  a  pure  and  sinless  life,  could  say,  ''  Father,  I 
have  glorified  Thee  on  the  earth."  In  the  glory  of  this  work  and 
the  completeness  of  this  sacrifice.  He  is  set  forth  in  the  Gospel  as 
the  one  great  object  of  hope.  By  the  merciful  appointment  of  God, 
He  is  proposed  and  accepted  as  the  substitute  of  all  who  will  accept 
Him  in  this  relation.  In  the  act  of  looking  to  that  Cross,  and 
believing  on  that  Saviour,  the  guilty  and  the  lost  are  identified  with 
Him  in  all  the  transactions  of  the  Divine  justice.  He  becomes  the 
Lord,  their  righteousness. 

The  warning  of  the  prophet,  then,  to  the  king,  "  Set  thine  house 
in  order,"  is  equivalent  to  the  call  of  the  apostle  to  every  lost  and 
guilty  creature  upon  earth,  "  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
thou  shalt  be  saved."  The  house  of  every  soul  that  looks  to  Him 
in  faith,  He  will  set  in  such  order  by  the  glory  of  His  presence,  that 
the  scrutiny  of  the  last  judgment  itself  will  find  nothing  to  condemn. 
"  It  is  appointed  unto  men  once  to  die,  but  after  this  the  judgment ; 
so  Christ  was  once  ofi"ered  to  bear  the  sins  of  many,  and  to  them  that 
look  for  Him,  shall  He  appear  the  second  time.,  without  sin,  unto 
salvation."  The  sentence  juay  still  go  forth,  "  Thou  shalt  die,  and 
not  live."  But  for  the  believer.  He  has  divested  that  sentence  of 
all  its  gloom  and  terror.     He,  the  Lord  of  life  Himself,  was  "  once 


OR,   A   MESSAGE  FROM   GOD.  195 

dead,  and  is  now  alive  for  evermore ; "  and  side  by  side  witli  tlie 
sentence  of  death  against  us,  is  the  sentence  of  life  in  Him.  "  Thou 
shalt  die,  and  not  live,"  is  written  against  us ;  but  the  assurance  is 
equally  clear  and  unmistakable,  "  He  that  believeth  in  I\Ie,  though 
he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live ;  and  he  that  liveth  and  believeth  in 
Me  shall  never  die."  During  a  season  of  severe  illness,  Mr.  Cecil 
once  wrote  these  words:  "When  He  said  to  me,  by  my  physicians, 
'  Thou  shalt  die,  and  not  live,'  and  especially  when  one  of  them  told 
me  this  with  tears,  my  soul,  like  a  man  suddenly  overwhelmed  by  aii 
inundation,  looked  around  to  examine  the  ground  on  which  it  stood 
to  meet  the  unexpected  trial.  The  ground  was  found  to  be  such  as 
could  secure  me  from  any  flood,  and  I  was  enabled  to  reply,  My 
friend,  you  do  not  alarm  me.  '  I  know  whom  I  have  believed,  and 
am  persuaded  that  He  is  able  to  keep  that  which  I  have  committed 
unto  Him,  against  that  day.'  "  This  fragment  wa's  written  in  the  year 
1799.  The  passage  it  quotes  as  the  ground  of  consolation  was 
written  about  the  middle  of  the  first  century.  But  in  all  ages,  and 
among  all  generations  of  men,  the  faith  embodied  in  that  great  sen- 
tence has  constituted  the  one  immovable  foundation  on  which  innu- 
merable souls,  swept  away  in  wreck  and  ruin  by  the  floods  of  sin  that 
have  inundated  the  whole  world,  have  been  built  up  again  in  perfect 
order  and  imperishable  strength. 

Nor  is  this  all — this  initiatory  act  and  exercise  of  faith.  Besides 
that  first  movement  which  unites  the  soul  to  Christ,  there  is  a  subse- 
quent movement,  a  constant,  habitual  preparation,  which  we  cannot 
overlook — a  work  necessarily  growing  out  of  and  connected  with  all 
true  faith.  It  is  the  setting  of  the  house  in  order,  not  once,  but  day 
by  day,  to  the  end  of  life.  Hezekiah,  when  the  prophet  came  to 
him,  had  been  a  man  of  faith  and  prayer  for  many  years — one  of  the 
most  pious  of  all  the  kings  of  Judah.  But  his  work  is  not  done.  God 
stretches  out  His  hand  against  him,  and  smites  him  with  a  malady 
which,  in  its  nature,  is  mortal.  The  king  turns  his  face  to  the  wall, 
and  pours  out  his  soul  in  an  agony  of  tears.  He  prays  as  men  pray 
when  they  feel  the  hand  of  God  upon  them.  And  lo !  the  sentence, 
always,  it  would  seem,  suspended  on  the  exercise  of  penitence  and 
prayer,  is  arrested,  and  fifteen  years  more  of  hope  and  promise  are 
added  to  the  king's  life.  As  a  sign  from  heaven  that  the  promise 
shall  not  fail,  one  of  the  greatest  miracles  recorded  in  the  Bible  is 
wrought,  and  He  who  made  the  stars  to  "  fight  against  Siscra,"  com- 


196  THE  PROPHET  AND  THE  KING; 

mands  the  sun  to  smile  upon  Hezekiah,  and  the  shadow  turns  back 
again  ten  degrees  on  the  dial  of  Ahaz.  He  is  saved.  But  alas  for 
the  vanity  and  weakness  of  human  nature  in  its  best  state.  Even 
after  that  stern  lesson  of  illness  and  miraculous  deliverance,  we  find 
the  record,  "But  Hezekiah  rendered  not  again  according  to  the 
benefit  done  unto  him ;  for  his  heart  was  lifted  up — lifted  up  with 
pride."  Again  the  Almighty  touches  him — "  there  was  wrath  upon 
him,  and  upon  Jerusalem."  Once  more  he  turns  his  face  to  the 
wall ;  the  child  is  subdued  at  the  reproof  of  his  father^s^"  Hezekiah 
humbled  himself  for  the  pride  of  his  heart."    . 

What  child  of  God,  or  believer  in  Jesus,  does  not  recognise  him- 
self in  this  portrait  hung  up  in  the  picture  gallery  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. A  complication  of  events  in  the  providence  of  God,  merciful 
and  mysterious,  hedge  up  his  path,  and  drive  him  to  the  Cross.  He 
beholds,  and  lives.  A  new  life  fills  his  soul ;  a  new  hope  brightens 
on  his  path.  But  it  is  the  life  of  faith  in  its  germ ;  the  first  breath- 
ings of  hope  in  its  chrysalis  form,  fair  and  promising,  but  still  fettered 
by  a  "  body  of  sin  and  death."  How  many  struggles  are  still  neces- 
sary, before  that  body  of  sin  and  death  is  thrown  aside,  before  the 
thick  and  interlacing  branches  pf  worldliness  are  broken  off,  and  the 
new  creature  in  Christ  Jesus,  like  the  joyous  insect  soaring  away 
from  the  withered  branch  or  twig  where  it  was  bound,  moves  and 
exults  in  all  its  free  and  unrestrained  energies,  in  the  light  and 
splendor  of  the  heavenly  world.  Alternate  light  and  darkness,  joy 
and  sorrow,  health  and  sickness — these  are  the  shifting  scenes  of  that 
path  where  the  Father  in  heaven  leads  His  child  upon  earth — that 
path  so  bright,  at  times,  that  it  seems  to  touch  the  very  borders  of 
Immauuel's  land;  and  then  so  dark  and  cheerless,  that  the  trembling- 
child  can  only  grasp  his  Father's  hand,  and  whisper,  "  He  knoweth 
the  way  that  I  take."  But  through  all  these  alternations  and  vicissi- 
tudes, it  is  a  gradual  though  irregular  progress,  a  setting  of  the  house 
more  and  more  in  order,  "the  path  of  the  just  like  the  shining  light, 
shining  more  and  more  to  the  perfect  day."  If  it  ^is  first  of  all, 
"  through  belief  of  the  truth,"  that  our  house  is  set  in  order,  it  is 
always  afterwards  "  through  sanctification  of  the  spirit "  that  that 
house  is  prepared  for  the  coming  of  the  Master,  furnished  and 
adorned  as  the  dwelling  place  of  the  Spirit  of  holiness. 

A  German  writer  has  remarked  that  God  accounts  nothing  right- 
e9us  which  is  not  so  in  reality.     If  he  means  that  whenever  God  ac- 


OR,   A   MESSAGE   FROM   GOD.  197 

counts  the  sinner  righteous  by  the  imputation  of  the  righteousness 
of  Chi-ist,  He  makes  him  truly  and  personally  righteous  by  the  in- 
fluences of  the  Spirit,  this  is  a  great  and  invariable  truth — the  law 
of  the  progress  and  perfection  of  the  Divine  life  in  the  human  soul. 
The  work  of  yesterday  will  not  answer  for  to-day,  nor  the  work  of 
to-day  for  to-morrow.  Each  successive  day  and  year,  as  they  bring, 
in  their  onward  march,  new  trials  and  sterner  experiences,  demand, 
as  the  condition  of  our  safety,  constant  effort  and  increasing  vigilance 
to  the  end.  "  This  one  thing  I  do,  forgetting  the  things  that  are 
behind,  and  reaching  forth  unto  those  things  which  are  before,  I 
press  toward  the  mark,  for  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in 
Christ  Jesus."  The  Christian  is  a  soldier,  and,  with  his  armor  on, 
he  may  be  ready  for  the  battle ;  but  if  he  foils  asleep  at  his  post,  or 
on  the  field,  a  child  may  disarm  him.  The  believer  is  a  pilgrim, 
and  with  his  face  turned  to  the  shining  city,  "that'city  whose  builder 
and  whose  maker  is  God,"  he  is  in  the  way  of  life;  but  if  ho  turns 
aside  to  the  enchanted  grounds  of  forbidden  pleasure,  he  may  touch 
the  very  borders  of  Immanuel's  land,  and  still  not  enter.  The  child 
of  God  is  a  sentinel  placed  on  duty  upon  the  plains  of  life,  and  watch- 
ing in  the  darkness  and  silence  of  the  night  for  the  coming  of  the 
Master ;  but  if  he  suffers  himself  to  be  overtaken  by  the  dalliance 
of  sin,  or  lulled  asleep  on  the  open  plain  by  the  songs  of  the  enchant- 
ress, that  cry  may  at  last  burst  upon  him  in  a  dreadful  and  unex- 
pected hour,  '■'■  Behold,  the  Bridegroom  cometh ;  go  ye  out  to  meet 
Him."  There  is  peace,  it  is  true,  for  the  believer,  even  here,  in  an- 
ticipation of  heaven.  But  as  the  albatross  rests  on  the  bosom  of  the 
wave,  or  was  supposed,  in  the  superstitions  of  the  mariner,  to  sleep 
even  on  the  wing,  so  with  the  child  of  God,  in  the  region  of  the 
new  life,  the  congenial  element  where  the  principles  of  faith  and 
hope  expand  their  wings  and  take  their  delightful  excursions,  he 
reposes  amid  all  the  storms  that  surround  him,  and  finds  in  the  very 
act  of  putting  forth  his  energies  in  the  service  of  his  God,  that  peace 
which  passeth  all  understanding. 

Let  me  then  whisper  one  parting  word  of  warning,  as  we  take 
leave  of  the  prophet  and  the  king.  ''  Awake,  0  sleeper  I  "  ''  Set 
thine  house  in  order !  " 

To  him  whose  eye,  in  the  providence  of  God,  may  be  directed  to 
these  pages,  I  would  say.  This  is  a  message  from  God  to  you.  ''  It 
is  not  a  vain  thing  for  you,  because  it  is  your  life."     Let  the  trav- 


198         THE  PROPHET  AND  THE  KING,  ETC. 

eller,  lost  in  some  trackless  wilderness,  smile  at  his  peril.  Let  the 
shipwrecked  mariner,  drifting  far  out  on  a  stormy  sea,  laugh  at  the 
winds  and  the  waves.  Let  the  criminal  on  his  way  to  the  scaffold 
indulge,  if  he  will,  in  levity.  But,  0  impenitent  man,  unregenerate 
woman,  lover  of  pleasure  more  than  lover  of  God,  make  not  light  of 
that  evil  of  sin  which  possesses  thy  soul — that  "  wrath  of  God  re- 
vealed from  heaven  against  all  ungodliness  and  unrighteousness  of 
jiien  " — that  wrath  already  darkening  the  horizon  with  the  storm  of 
the  coming  judgment.  Are  you  turning  away  from  the.warning.  of 
the  prophet  because  the  bloom  of  youth  is  mantling  your  cheek,  and 
the  life-blood  of  youth  is  bounding  in  your  veins  ?  the  arrow  which 
is  to  wither  that  bloom,  and  smite  all  that  strength  and  beauty  to 
the  grave,  is  already  cleaving  the  air.  Are  you  closing  these  pages, 
as  you  have  closed  ten  thousand  before,  because  you  have  not  yet 
been  brought,  like  Hezekiah,  to  the  chamber  of  sickness  and  death — 
because  the  future  seems  full  of  opportunity  and  radiant  with  prom- 
ise ?  The  hope  is  as  false  as  hell,  as  cruel  as  the  grave.  When  that 
chamber  shall  be  once  entered,  your  spirit,  in  crossing  that  threshold, 
may  have  crossed  the  last  boundary  and  terminus  of  hope.  Amid 
the  wild  distractions  and  crowding  anxieties  of  that  tremendous  hour, 
with  a  heart  trembling  in  suspense,  and  a  body  shivering  in  the 
pangs  of  dissolution,  you  may  discover  that  in  the  dealing  of  a 
dreadful  though  righteous  retribution,  the  sweet  visions  of  hope  and 
heaven  have  faded  forever,  and  that  "  hell  is  truth  seen  too  late." 

''  Set  thine  house  in  order."  King,  prophet,  minister,  member 
of  the  church,  man  of  the  world — the  sentence  has  gone  forth 
against  thee,  ''  Thou  shalt  die,  and  not  live." 


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1 


200  OBEDIENCE   BETTER   THAN    SACRIFICE. 

now  sends,  at  the  hands  of  Samuel,  the  command,  to  execute  the 
long-impending  sentence  against  the  "  sinners,  the  Amalekites." 
"  Now,  go  and  smite  Amalek,  and  utterly  destroy  all  that  they  have, 
and  spare  them  not;  but  slay  both  man  and  woman,  infant  and  suck- 
ling, ox  and  sheep,  camel  and  ass."  "  And  Saul  smote  the  Amalek- 
ites." His  obedience,  however,  was  not  perfect ;  he  did  not  wholly 
fulfil  the  Divine  direction.  For  this  Grod  was  wroth,  and  sent  Sam- 
uel to  rebuke  him,  ''And  Samuel  came  to  Saul;  and  Saul  said  unto 
him  " — for  hypocrisy  is  ever  bold  in  its  professions — "  Blessed  be 
thou  of  the  Lord;  I  have  performed  the  commandment  of  the  Lord." 
But  sin  will  have  a  tongue,  though  it  be  the  braying  of  an  ass  or 
the  bleating  of  a  sheep.  "  And  Samuel  said.  What  meaneth,  then, 
this  bleating  of  the  sheep  in  my  ears,  and  the  lowing  of  the  oxen 
which  I  hear  ?  "  There  are  two  ways  in  which  sinners  commonly 
try  to  excuse  their  guilt.  They  either  endeavor  to  shift  its  responsi- 
bility upon  others,  or  plead  for  it  a  religious  motive,  or  they  do  both. 
Saul  had  spared  Agag  the  king,  also  the  best  of  the  sheep  and  the 
oxen;  but  he  avowed  it  was  at  the  clamor  of  the  people,  and  to  ofier 
in  sacrifice  to  Grod.  Samuel  retorts  upon  him,  ''Hath  the  Lord  as 
great  delight  in  burnt-oiferings  and  sacrifices  as  in  obeying  the  voice 
of  the  Lord  ?  Behold,  to  obey  is  better  than  sacrifice,  and  to  hearken 
than  the  fat  of  .rams.  For  rebellion  is  as  the  sin  of  witchcraft,  and 
stubbornness  is  as  iniquity  and  idolatry." 

The  text  in  its  historical  connections  suggests  the  following  theme : 
That  obedience  to  God's  law  is  superior  to  disobedience, 
even  when  attended  by  sacrifices  to  his  cause. 

The  Jlrst  leading  thought  offered  in  support  of  this  proposition  is. 
If  God  should  sanction  or  allow  disobedience  to  His  law  for  any 
cause  whatever,  it  would  finally  subvert  His  Kingdom  altogether  in 
the  earth. 

It  is  an  axiom  in  physics,  that  no  two  bodies  can  occupy  the  same 
place  at  the  same  time.  Every  spiritual  existence  fills  some  sphei*e. 
And  it  may  be  equally  said  that  no  two  spirits  precisely  alike  can 
occupy  the  same  position  at  one  instant.  Herein  may  be  seen  an 
argument  for  the  unity  of  God.  There  can  be  but  one  infinity — all 
true  and  pure  ideas  of  Godhead  demand  that  He  be  infinite.  It  is 
impossible  to  conceive  of  t\yo  unlimited  beings  filling  one  unlimited 
space,  and  hence  there  can  be  but  one  Infinite  Being.  The  author- 
ity of  this  one  God  must  be  equally  prevalent  with  Himself,  uni- 


OBEDIENCE   BETTER   THAN   SACRIFICE.  201 

versal.  The  assertion  and  maintenance  of  another  rule,  which  must 
ensue  if  God  allow  disobedience  to  His  own  government — because 
disobedience  to  it  is  only  obedience  to  another — would  be  to  set  up 
two  universal  and  supreme  dominions,  which  would  be  impossible. 
One  must  destroy  the  other.  This  is  a  fundamental  principle  in 
civil  government,  as  is  illustrated  in  our  own  country.  The  laws  of 
the  United  States  are  supreme  in  all  the  States  and  Territories. 
Hence  any  municipal  law  of  a  State  or  Territory  which  conflicts  with 
them  is  not  binding,  and  falls  to  the  ground  from  its  very  illegality. 
Should  the  States  of  this  Union  pass  laws  to  regulate  the  currency, 
to  declare  war,  and  enforce  them,  it  would  be  insurrection,  and  cause 
finally  an  utter  subversion  of  the  G-eneral  Government.  ''  A  house 
divided  or  a  nation  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand."  "  Ye 
cannot  serve  God  and  mammon."  Consequently,  if  God  be  not  obeyed 
by  His  creatures,  some  other  power  will  be  enthroned  in  the  uni- 
verse, and  His  rule  practically  destroyed. 

Moreover,  a  law  is  a  law  only  so  far  as  it  is  sustained.  The  enact- 
ment of  a  statute  by  the  law-makers  gives  the  form,  not  the  force  of 
law.  If  the  statute  passed  and  published  do  not  flow  from  the  heart 
of  the  people,  and  be  not  sustained  by  public  sentiment,  it  soon  be- 
comes a  dead  letter  in  the  archives  of  the  courts.  You  will  find  in 
the  records  of  every  State  laws  entirely  obsolete,  because  long  disre- 
garded, and  to  attempt  now  to  enforce  them  would  madden  to  rebel- 
lion. Therefore  we  see  the  folly  of  legislating  in  adVance  of  public 
opinion.  This  should  be  first  created  and  educated,  and  then  the 
laws  passed  would  have  a  sufficient  guaranty  for  their  support.  Then 
I  submit,  What  is  to  become  of  the  laws  of  God,  those  pure  emana- 
tions of  Divine  wisdom  and  goodness,  enacted  and  promulgated  to 
preserve  the  order  of  the  universe,  if  they  are  to  be  habitually 
trampled  upon  with  impunity?  Surely  violation,  unreproved,  would 
superinduce  contempt,  and  contempt,  in  its  turn,  recklessness,  and 
the  ordinances  of  Heaven  would  virtually  cease  to  be  laws. 

Let  it  be  also  remembered,  that  if  the  Almighty  should  allow  dis- 
obedience for  any  object  whatever,  it  would  defeat  the  end  of  His 
moral  government,  the  promotion  of  virtue  and  religion,  upon  the 
existence  of  which  its  stability  depends.  Let  it  be  once  authorita- 
tively understood  among  men  that  sin  can  be  freely  indulged,  and 
yet  the  Divine  favor  secured  by  sacrifice,  and  there  will  be  an  end  to 
virtue.     Human  nature  will  never  endure  the  rigid  habits  of  un- 


202  OBEDIENCE   BETTER   THAN   SACRIFICE. 

swerving  integrity  in  the  relations  of  life,  if  all  the  rewards  of  such 
a  life  can  be  as  certainly  obtained  by  a  loose  disregard  and  contempt 
of  those  relations.  The  ungodly  can  well  afford  to  bring  to  God's 
altar  their  occasional  offerings  of  money,  talents,  or  services,  if  they 
can  receive  from  the  Divine  hand  sanction  for  their  illegal  gains  and 
unholy  lusts.  Let  me  pursue  my  desire  for  wealth,  have  license  to 
get  gold — by  right  if  I  can ;  if  not,  by  wrong ;  by  steeling  my  heart 
to  the  calls  of  mercy,  the  claims  of  humanity,  trampling  under  foot 
every  attribute  of  justice  and  truth,  and  chiselling  betw.een  the  flesh 
and  bones  of  unfortunate  men,  helpless  women  and  children,  for 
gain — and  surely  I  would  prove  myself  destitute  of  the  first  qualifi- 
cations for  success,  if  I  could  not  afford  occasionally  to  replenish  the 
poor  fund,  or  even  the  missionary  treasury.  Burning  with  worldly 
ambition,  let  me  understand  from  Heaven  that  I  may  seek  honor  by 
the  legitimate  influences  of  reason  and  truth  if  I  can  succeed ;  if  not, 
by  force  and  fraud,  by  blood  and  double-dealing — then  I  would  show 
myself  poorly  versed  in  modern  state-craft,  if  I  could  not  readily 
consent  on  great  anniversaries  to  allude  in  vague  terms  to  the  Su- 
preme Ruler  of  the  universe,  or  even  go  so  far  as  to  make  a  polite 
bow  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  or  order  a  Te  Deum,  or  celebrate  a  public 
fast.  A  devotee  of  pleasure,  my  heart  a  nest  of  all  uncleanness,  I 
might  well  be' bold  to  draw  the  sword  against  the  church's  foes,  and 
peril  limb  and  life,  fame  and  fortune,  for  her  safety  and  honor,  if  for 
all  other  times  and  seasons  I  could  have  her  permission  and  pardon 
for  my  libidinous  intrigues,  my  habitual  unblushing  violations  of  in- 
nocence and  virtue ;  or  in  hoary  age  be  ready,  with  feeble  tottering 
steps,  when  the  fires  of  the  soul  have  spent  themselves  in  whirling 
consuming  lusts,  and  the  man  once  so  proud  and  beautiful  in  his 
fleshly  glory,  has  naught  left  but  the  dry,  blackened  crust  of  a  former 
self,  to  creep  to  the  stately  altar,  and  vainly  strive  to  appease  an  in- 
sulted God  by  the  parade  of  a  penitence  which  grieves  not  that  it 
has  sinned,  but  that  it  can  no  longer  sin. 

"  In  every  street,  ^ 

The  brave  streams  of  the  proud  and  gaudy  world 

Flow  to  the  house  of  God," 
may  be  a  satire  too  severe,  but  it  has  its  fearful  pointing.     Multitudes 
delude  themselves  that  they  can  live  irregularly,  divorce  business 
and  religion,  throw  the  reins  upon  the  neck  of  passion  and  spur  on 
to  the  freest  indulgence,  and  on  the  Sabbath  go  to  the  house  of  God, 


OBEDIENCE   BETTER   THAN   SACRIFICE.  203 

and  wipe  away  the  sins  of  the  week  by  repeating  a  prayer,  singing  a 
psalm,  or  praising  the  preacher. 

Vain  man,  foolish  and  blind  !  What  is  your  gold  to  God  ?  "  Will 
He  esteem  thy  riches  ?  No,  not  gold  nor  all  the  forces  of  strength." 
What  your  learning  and  services  to  Him  who  has  angels  for  His 
ministers  ?  He  by  a  single  word  could  people  the  earth  with  myriad 
forms  of  strength  and  beauty,  and,  breathing  into  them  the  living 
spark  of  intelligence  and  sensibility,  could  employ  them  all  to  fulfil 
His  Word.  Think  not  "  to  walk  in  the  ways  of  thy  heart  and  in  the 
sight  of  thine  eyes,"  and  afterward  to  corrupt  judgment  by  the  plea 
of  heroic  suiferings  !  To  use  your  mental  and  social  powers  solely 
to  gain  the  praise  of  men,  and  then  to  escape  that  most  crushing  pf 
all  curses — the  penalty  which  awaits  abused  talents — by  recognising 
with  patronizing  air  the  precepts  of  the  Bible  in  a  fugitive  essay,  or 
deferentially  referring,  to  the  worth  of  religion  to  the  poor  and  the 
criminal  in  the  court  room  or  the  Senate  chamber !  To  amass  money, 
to  add  house  to  house,  acre  to  acre,  ship  to  ship,  to  crowd  your  safes 
with  bonds  and  mortgages,  to  get  all  you  can  and  keep  all  you  get 
through  a  long  life,  despite  the  appeals  of  poverty  and  ignorance,  and 
then,  when  death  comes  and  strikes  all  from  your  avaricious  grasp, 
to  buy  off  the  accusing  witnesses,  Mercy  and  Justice,  and  purchase  a 
valid  title  to  heaven  by  founding  a  hospital  or  endowing  a  college ! 
To  encourage  such  a  hope  would  be  a  libel  on  the  Gospel,  a  mockery 
to  you.  It  is  your  heart,  your  love,  that  God  asks ;  your  obedience, 
and  not  your  sacrifices.  He  made  the  stars,  and  said,  shine,  and  they 
shone — the  birds,  and  said,  sing,  and  they  sung.  Your  will  He  can- 
not compel.  The  submission  of  this  will  is  the  only  service  He  can 
accept.  "  Will  the  Lord  be  pleased  with  thousands  of  rams,  or  with 
ten  thousands  of  rivers  of  oil  ?  Shall  I  give  my  first-born  for  my 
transgression,  the  fruit  of  my  body  for  the  sin  of  my  soul?  He  hath 
showed  thee,  0  man,  what  is  good ;  and  what  doth  the  Lord  require 
of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly 
with  thy  God?"  (Mi'c,  vi,  7,  8.)  And  yet  are  there  not  teachers, 
claiming  a  Divine  commission,  who  boldly  proclaim,  Give  us  your 
money  and  your  conscience,  and  we  will  square  your  sins  with 
Heaven  ?  Indeed,  is  there  not  a  deeply-seated  popular  belief,  not 
defended  to  be  sure,  but  covertly  felt  and  cherished,  that  God  will 
be  bribed  at  last  by  some  act  of  devotion  or  beneficence  which  man 
himself  can  perform  ? 


204  OBEDIENCE   BETTER   THAN   SACRIFICE. 

Furtliermore,  such  is  the  infectious  nature  of  disobedience,  that  if 
countenanced  at  all,  it  must  spread  with  fearful  rapidity.  Obedience 
is  difficult,  and  reluctantly  imitated.  Disobedience  is  easy,  and 
readily  imitated.  In  the  natural  heart  there  is  a  strong  bias  to  sin, 
a  restiveness  under  restraint,  an  inherent  proclivity  to  mischief, 
which  like  a  train  of  powder  needs  only  the  spark  of  vicious  example, 
to  cause  the  explosion  of  corrupt  passions  into  open,  defiant  rebellion 
against  all  authority.  If  there  be  such  positive  and  rapid  commu- 
nication between  material  substances,  such  as  light,  electricity,  and 
heat,  notwithstanding  the  grossaess  of  matter,  what  may  we  not  ex- 
pect between  spirit  and  spirit,  where  the  nature  is  so  ethereal,  the 
organism  so  exquisite  and  subtle  !  Swifter  than  the  beams  of  morn- 
ing, and  passing  the  speed  of  angel's  wing,  is  the  transmission  of 
thought,  thought  impelled  by  fiery  passion.  Incalculable  is  the 
force  of  embodied  conception  and  feeling  over  the  hearts  of  men. 
Truly,  the  mind  is  a  chamber  hung  with  pictures  painted  by  the 
brush  of  sympathy  from  the  scenes  of  associated  life.  But  alas !  for 
the  pictures,  the  originals  are  too  often  the  habitations  of  cruelty,  the 
region  and  shadow  of  death,  where  the  light  and  love  which  gleam 
and  flash  above  and  below  serve  only  to  disclose  the  darkness  and 
death.  Not  more  quickly  does  fire  run  through  stubble,  mutiny 
spread  •  on  shipboard,  or  insurrection  in  an  army,  where  the  spirit 
of  faction  and  disorder  is  not  decisively  met  and  crushed,  than  would 
universal  anarchy  ensue  in  the  moral  world,  were  Grod  to  tolerate  for 
a  moment,  and  for  any  object  whatever,  disloyalty  to  His  supremacy. 
"  Forever,  0  Lord,  Thy  Word  is  settled  in  heaven."  "  Thou  hast 
magnified  it  above  all  Thy  name."  "  It  is  easier  for  heaven  and 
earth  to  pass,  than  one  tittle  of  the  law  to  fail." 

The  second  general  argument  for  the  superiority  of  obedience  is 
found  in  the  excellent  fruits  or  graces  which  it  instrumentally  origi- 
nates and  nourishes. 

Need  it  be  said  that  faith  without  works  is  dead  ?  There  can  be 
no  real  confidence  in  the  Divine  mercy,  where  there  is  not  sincere 
obedience  to  the  Divine  law.  "  Repentance  towards  Grod  and  faith 
in'our  Lord  Jesus  Christ"  has  a  profound  psychological  as  well  as 
theological  order.  He  who  knew  what  is  in  nian,  understood  per- 
fectly that  man  neither  would  nor  could  trust  another  to  save  him 
from  a  condition  with  which  he  felt  fully  satisfied ;  and  that  trust 
in  another  and  higher  power  for  salvation  was  not  possible,  until,  in 


OBEDIENCE   BETTER   THAN   SACRIFICE.  205 

adclition,  to  a  thorough  dissatisfaction  ■with  self,  an  all-pervading  con- 
viction fills  the  heart,  "  I  have  done  all  I  could  to  save  myself." 
God  never  does  for  us  what  we  can  do  for  ourselves.  Divine  inter- 
position begins  where  human  strength  ceases.  Not  to  destroy  man 
by  ignoring  his  personality,  but  to  save  him  by  reaching  forth  a  help- 
ing hand  to  fiillcu  though  glorious  powers,  is  the  cardinal  idea  of  the 
Gospel.  And  it  is  not  until  the  penitent  feels  that  he  has  done  all 
in  his  power  to  deliver  himself  from  sin,  that  he  will  trust  God  to  do 
for  him  what  experience  has  taught  he  cannot  do  for  himself. 

This  truth  obtains  equally  in  the  experience  of  every  Christian. 
If  he  have  not  pure  love  to  God  and  to  his  neighbor,  there  can  be  no 
abiding  faith.  Unless  he  be  conscious  of  integrity,  of  a  sincere,  ear- 
nest, and  habitual  eifort  to  do  God's  holy  will,  he  cannot  come  to 
Him  with  confidence  either  for  his  own  personal  sanctification  and 
comfort,  or  for  the  salvation  of  others.  "  For  if  our  heart  condemn 
us,  God  is  greater  than  our  heart,  and  knoweth  all  things.  Beloved, 
if  our  heart  condemn  us  not,  then  have  we  confidence  towards  God. 
And  whatever  we  ask  we  receive  of  Him,  because  we  keep  His  com- 
mandments, and  do  those  things  which  are  pleasing  in  His  sight." 
(1  John,  iii,  19,  &c.)  The  cords  of  iniquity  efFectually  bind  the 
wings  of  faith.  And  the  reason  that  the  church  is  so  cold  in  her 
devotions,  and  so  little  comparative  success  attends  her  evangelizing 
efforts,  is,  that  her  confidence  in  God's  promises  and  methods  is  par- 
alyzed by  a  self-accusing  consciousness  of  delinquency.  There  can- 
not be  an  overcoming  faith  in  the  people  of  God,  except  the  Spirit 
of  Him  who  fulfilled  all  righteousness  breathes  and  works  in  their 
hearts  and  lives. 

With  equal  justness  I  may  add,  that  humility  can  be  successfully 
cultivated  only  by  habitual  obedience.  There  may  be  the  appear- 
ance of  true  self-abasement  in  the  man  who,  while  his  life  is  marred 
by  gusts  of  anger,  vindictiveness,  and  plottings  for  place,  comes  ever 
and  anon,  when  glimpses  of  his  folly  flash  suddenly  upon  him,  before 
the  people  with  tearful  confession.  But  this  does  not  imply  that  the 
heart  is  really  humble.  For  no  sooner  is  the  pride  stung  or  the 
imaginary  rights  invaded,  than  the  same  resentment  shows  itself. 
Ah,  spasmodic  grief  and  intensest  haughtiness  may  coexist !  Paral- 
lelism is  often  found  in  one  point,  between  the  straightest  and  the 
most  crooked  line;  but  run  them  out,  and  the  disparity  is  soon  seen. 
The  proudest  heart  may  in  single  instances  harmonize  with  the  rule, 


206  OBEDIENCE  BETTER  THAN   SACRIFICE. 

"Let  each  esteem  others  better  than  himself;"  but  trace  the  two  into 
all  the  possible  contingencies  of  morals  and  religion,  and  you  will 
discover  the  disagreement.  Action  tries  the  temper  of  a  grace.  It 
is  not  by  periodic  fits  of  sorrow  that  the  heart  is  made  lowly,  but 
keeping  it  in  daily  contact  with  the  bright,  keen  edge  of  the  com- 
mandment. 

Some  think  to  grow  humble  by  contemplating  God's  wisdom, 
goodness,  and  power,  as  displayed  in  creation.  They  "  consider 
the  heavens  the  work  of  his  fingers,  the  moon  and  stars  which  he 
hath  ordained,  and  ask,  what  is  man  that  Thou  art  mindful,  of  him, 
or  the  son  of  man  that  Thou  visitest  him  ?  "  They  dwell  upon  the 
magnitude  and  permanence  of  the  universe,  and,  in  contrast,  the 
smallness  and  instability  of  man,  write  disparaging  words  of  human 
life,  and  regard  themselves  humble.  In  poetic  frenzy,  they  group 
the  worst  and  saddest  scenes  of  the  world  into  pictures,  brood  over 
the  most  unamiable  tendencies  of  human  nature,  and  think,  by  such 
a  process,  to  become  humble.  The  value  of  meditation  upon  the 
Divine  works  and  human  follies  cannot  be  doubted ;  but  that  humility 
can  be  wholly  or  chiefly  cultivated  by  it,  I  totally  deny.  Philoso- 
phers and  poets  have  written  rapturously  of  the  Divine  Majesty,  and 
painted  in  blackest  shades  and  tenderest  pathos  the  vileness  and 
vanity  of  mankind,  but  have  remained  the  veriest  self-idolaters.  He 
is  not  the  humblest  man  who  constantly  berates  himself,  but  who, 
from  a  just  estimate  of  his  own  character,  a  thorough  consciousness 
of  his  own  power  as  changed  and  strengthened  by  grace,  pursues  a 
quiet,  orderly,  and  useful  life.  No  one  so  deeply  feels  the  need  of 
Divine  help  as  he  who  is  trying  habitually  to  fulfil  God's  law.  None 
so  fully  estimates  and  extols  the  Divine  power  and  glory  as  he  who 
can  say,  "  Wherefore  I  take  you  to  record  this  day,  I  am  pure 
from  the  blood  of  all  men.".  He  indeed  is  the  only  man  who  can 
"truly  say,  "I  am  the  least  of  the  apostles,  that  am  not  meet  to  be 
called  an  apostle  " — "  less  than  the  least  of  all  saints."  Behold  ! 
Jesus  takes  a  little  child  up  in  His  arms,  and,  in  the  presence  of 
His  disputing  disciples,  declares  him  to  be  the  type  of  His  King- 
dom. And  why?  Because  of  his  humility.  He  meant  by  this 
example  to  warn  them  against  ambition,  to  .teach  them  that  the 
great  practical  lesson  tbey  would  learn  in  following  Him  was  lowli- 
ness. And  so  the  sequel  proved.  I  have  sometimes  thought,  man 
begins  the  world  a  child  in  simplicity  and  guilelessness,  and  soon, 


OBEDIENCE   BETTER   THAN   SACRIFICE.  207 

alas  !  exalts  himself  against  God ;  but  if  he  ever  return  to  God  by 
way  of  the  Cross,  and  fulfil  in  his  life  the  whole  circle  of  the  com- 
mandments, compress  in  his  experience  and  practice  their  divinest, 
sweetest  harmony,  he  ends  where  he  began — a  child,  a  very  child 
for  meekness. 

Spiritual  knowledge  comes  originally  and  is  chiefly  promoted  by 
obedience.  To  acquire  a  certain  and  satisfactory  insight  to  any  sys- 
tem, we  must  follow  in  our  inquiries  such  a  method  as  its  nature 
allows.  It  would  be  the  height  of  folly  to  attempt  to  trace  and 
measure  the  paths  of  the  planets,  by  manipulating  according  to  the 
rules  of  chemical  afiinities  and  repulsions;  or  to  determine  the  deli- 
cate flow  of  thought,  imagination,  and  wit,  by  disquisitions  on  the 
square  and  circle.  Equally  absurd  is  the  efibrt — which  many,  in 
their  presumption,  have  sought  to  make — to  ascertain  the  things  of 
the  Spirit  of  God,  the  sublime  mysteries  of  religion,  by  processes 
strictly  human,  appeals  to  facts  belonging  wholly  to  the  sensible 
world.  Would  a  man  master  the  natural  sciences,  metaphysics,  pol- 
itics, or  any  one  of  the  sciences  subordinate  to  these,  then  he  must 
pause  at  the  threshold  of  each,  and,  acknowledging  his  ignorance, 
must  first  receive  from  each  the  key  which  unlocks  the  recesses 
within — otherwise,  all  attempts  at  entrance  are  vain — must  meekly 
learn  how  each  is  to  be  interrogated,  else  all  questionings  will  but 
return  in  the  echoes  of  their  own  folly,  and  no  progress  whatever  in 
sound  knowledge  will  be  made.  And  when  any  one  of  these  has 
deigned  to  speak,  he  must  receive  thankfully  any  revelation  of  law 
or  fact  which  is  uttered,  and,  instead  of  complaining  of  either  its 
scantiness  or  absurdity,  must  be  content  to  proceed  cautiously  and 
slowly  to  perfection,  and  be  satisfied  if,  after  the  lapse  of  long  years 
of  study  and  trial,  he  can  say,  "  I  am  master." 

As  in  the  earthly  sciences  the  Creator  has  indicated,  in  half-surface, 
half-buried  features,  the  line  of  investigation  by  which  they  are  to  be 
successfully  explored,  so  also  in  the  heavenly  He  has  revealed  to  us, 
by  the  conjoint  teachings  of  his  secret  Spirit  and  open  Word,  the 
unerring  way  to  Himself,  to  the  knowledge  of  His  spiritual  king- 
dom. "  How  knoweth  this  man  letters,  having  never  learned  ?  "  said 
the  marvelling  Jews.  Jesus  answered  them  and  said,  "  My  doctrine 
is  not  mine,  but  His  that  sent  Me.  If  any  man  will  do  His  will, 
he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine,  whether  it  be  of  God,  or  whether  I 
speak  of  myself."  {John,  vii,  16,  17.)     Christ  claimed  to  be  of  God. 


208  OBEDIENCE   BETTER   THAN   SACRIFICE. 

Nay,  said  the  Jews,  we  are  of  God ;  we  have  the  commandments ; 
we  received  the  law  by  Moses.  Allow  that  ye  have  the  law  and  the 
prophets ;  ye  know  them  not,  neither  do  them,  else  ye  would  discern 
My  origin,  person,  character,  works,  doctrine,  as  foretold  in  them — 
in  learning  and  doing  the  will  of  God  as  revealed  in  them,  ye  would 
assuredly  come  to  know  My  doctrine  to  be  divine,  and  that  I  am 
the  Christ  of  God,  whom  now  ye  so  ignorantly  and  culpably  deny. 
Here,  then,  is  the  clue  to  spiritual  knowledge.  The  heart  and  will 
must  be  submitted  to  God's  law.  -  . 

"  But,  above  all,  the  victory  is  most' sure 
For  him  who,  seeking  faith  by  virtue,  strives 
To  yield  entire  submission  to  the  law 
Of  conscience," 

illustrates  the  point— indeed,  is  simply  another  expression  of  the 
same  truth.  For,  even  should  the  divinity  and  spiritual  import  of 
the  Bible  be  doubted— if  its  excellent  moral  precepts  be  allowed, 
and  there  be  a  willingness  to  conform  to  them,  such  willingness,  if 
actual,  will  ultimately  insure  a  perfect  belief  of  the  highest  claims 
of  the  33ible.  "  No  man  is  so  ignorant  in  religion  as  to  know  noth- 
ing of  the  truth.  *  *  *  Now,  Christ  says,  if  any  man  will  do  His 
will,  as  far  as  he  already  discovers  it,  he  shall  know,"  &c.  If  there  .be 
a  simple  willingness  to  do  what  is  already  received,  further  and  fuller 
knowledge  shall  follow.  And  just  here— in  the  obstinate  aversion 
of  the  will  to  doing  what  pierces  and  crucifies  selfishness— lies  the 
great  barrier  to  spiritual  insight.  ''  Behold,  the  fear  of  the  Lord, 
that  is  wisdom ;  and  to  depart  from  evil  is  understanding."  {Job 
xxviii,  28.)  Take  an  example.  A  worldling  who  questions  the 
spiritual  doctrines  of  Christ,  but  admires  His  practical  precepts,  re- 
solves upon  reformation,  and  takes  these  precepts  for  his  guidance. 
.At  the  end  of  the  first  day,  what  is  the  result?  In  th^  whirl  of 
business,  the  old  leaven  of  avarice  begins  to  work,  and  equity  is  vio- 
lated. When  the  shades  of  evening  gather  around  him,  and  the  rush 
and  strife  of  trade  give  place  to  the  quiet  thoughts  of  home,  he  is 
obliged,  on  reviewing  his  actions,  to  write— failure.  The  next  day, 
he  is  more  guarded,  and  succeeds  better;  the  third,  and  no  special 
occurrence  brings  him  into  condemnation.  The  fourth  comes ;  the 
usual  scenes  and  excitements  are  met  with  composure  and  self-com- 
placency. Suddenly  he  is  assaulted  by  a  temptation,  from  a  source 
of  which  he  never  dreamed.     His  honor,  the  honor  of  his  family,  is 


OBEDIENCE   BETTER   THAN    SACRIFICE,  209 

impugned.  The  calm  man  is  on  fire.  I'll  be  avenged !  he  cries. 
Alas !  he  has  forgotten  One  hath  said,  ''  Vengeance  is  Mine ;  I  will 
repay ! "  Satisfaction  is  sought  and  obtained.  Ah  !  Samson  could 
be  held  with  new  ropes  while  asleep;  but  let  him  hear  the  cry, 
'*  The  Philistines  be  upon  thee  !  "  and  go  out  and  shake  himself,  and 
the  cords  are  snapped  like  tow  before  the  flame. 

Human  nature  can  be  kept  decent  and  orderly,  if  nothing  occurs 
to  arouse  its  slumbering  corruption ;  but  let  this  demon  be  maddened, 
and  where  then  are  all  the  bonds  of  reason  ?  Look  now  at  the  guilty 
man.  The  night  has  closed  upon  him ;  and  in  its  solemn,  hushed 
stillness,  conscience  awakes,  and,  with  self-accusiug  voice,  compels 
him  to  write  again,  as  the  great  tears  drop  upon  the  page — failure, 
failure.  But  what  is  going  on  in  his  mind  ?  He  is  coming  to  knowl- 
edge— making  the  discovery  that  he  is  a  sinner,  depraved  and  help- 
less; that  ''the  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  God,  is  not  subject 
to  the  law  of  God,  neither  indeed  can  be ; "  "  that  they  that  are  in 
the  flesh  cannot  please  God."  "  He  had  not  known  sin  but  by  the 
law;  the  commandment  came,  sin  revived,  and  he  died."  His 
aching  heart  looks  around  for  help,  but  refuge  fails  him.  He 
groans  and  roars  with  grief,  and  cannot  be  comforted.  He  is  bound 
by  a  power  he  cannot  break.  He  is  on  the  verge  of  despair,  and  he 
cries  as  one  who  feels  its  horrid,  chilling  shadows  are  stealing  over 
him,  "  Oh,  wretched  man  that  I  am !  who  shall  deliver  me  from  the 
body  of  this  death  ? "  Hark !  a  voice  sounds  throtigh  the  awful 
silence!  Lo,  a  form  bright  and  glorious  shines  through  the  mid- 
night darkness  !  It  is  the  voice,  the  face  of  Jesus !  "  Come  unto 
Me ! "  Eapturously  he  shouts,  "  I  thank  God  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord  !  "  What,  then,  is  "  the  law  but  our  schoolmaster  to  bring 
us  to  Christ  ?  "  Does  this  man  doubt  any  longer  the  divinity  and 
spirituality  of  the  Gospel  ?  "  He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  of  God 
hath  the  witness  in  himself"  that  its  glorious  doctrines  are  true.  0 
ye  proud  and  foolish  ones,  pufi"ed  up  with  fleshly  wisdom,  with  the 
vain  conceits  of  worldly  philosophy,  how  can  ye  discern  the  Son  of 
God,  and  perceive  the  mysteries  revealed  unto  babes,  when  ye  refuse 
to  submit  to  the  only  infallible  test  of  spiritual  religion  ?  Ye  prefer 
sacrifice  to  obedience.  Ye  would  fill  God's  nostrils  at  once  with  the 
incense  of  your  boasted  culture,  and  the  stench  of  your  folly  and  im- 
morality! "  Bring  no  more  vain  oblations ;  incense  is  an  abomina- 
tion unto  Me;  the  new-moons  and  Sabbaths,  the  calling  of  assem- 
14 


210  OBEDIENCE   BETTER   THAN   SACRIFICE. 

blies,  I  cannot  away  with ;  it  is  iniquity."  {Isaiah,  i,  13.)  Only  he 
who  is  penetrated  with  the  spirit  of  the  Word  can  understand  its 
teaching.  "  The  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit 
of  God.  for  they  are  foolishness  unto  him;  neither  can  he  know 
them,  because  they  are  spiritually  discerned.  But  he  that  is  spiritual 
judgeth  all  things."  "Blessed  art  thou,  Simon  Barjona,  for  flesh 
and  blood  hath  not  revealed  it  (the  messiahship  and  divinity  of 
Christ)  unto  thee,  but  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  And  as  in 
originally  coming  to  knowledge,  so  afterwards,  he  who  follows  most 
closely  the  footsteps  of  Jesus,  lives  most  rigidly  in  the  observance  of 
the  law,  will  have  the  deepest  insight  to  spiritual  truth,  the  clearest 
discernment  of  Divine  providence,  and  the  most  positive  and  reliable 
^dews  of  practical  duty.  While,  on  the  contrary,  he  who  follows 
Christ  afar  off,  and  presumes  to  atone  for  his  delinquencies  by  sacri- 
fices, will  be  confounded.  "  The  secret  of  the  Lord  is  with  them 
that  fear  Him,"  ''but  the  way  of  the  wicked  is  as  darkness;  in  the 
greatness  of  his  folly,  he  shall  go  astray." 

The  same  course  of  development  and  illustration  might  be  pursued 
in  the  treatment  of  all  the  Christian  graces.  It  could  be  shown  that 
life,  vigor,  beauty,  can  be  imparted  to  them  only  by  uniform  devoted- 
ness  to  duty.  The  richest  tracery-work  may  be  exquisitely  deline- 
ated on. the  porcelain,  but,  until  burnt  in  the  furnace,  it  cannot  stanJ. . 
The  most  thoroughly  orthodox  theories  of  practical  religion  may  be 
gathered  from  books;  the  virtues  all  may  be  accurately  learned  from 
the  teachers — their  force  acknowledged  and  beauty  a.dmired;  and 
they  may  acquire  a  sort  of  sentimental  existence  in  the  mind ;  but 
they  never  inhere  in  a  man's  very  being,  subsisting  in  all  his  thoughts 
and  feelings,  and  inseparable  in  all  their  robustness  and  beauty  from 
his  own  individuality,  until,  in-  addition  to  being  learned  by  rote, 
they  are  burnt  and  fixed  into  his  heart  in  the  intensest  fires  of  actual 
obedience  and  submission.  Thus  instinct  with  a  man's  own  con- 
sciousness, they  shall  last  while  he  himself  endures. 

The  third  and  last  general  argument  offered  to  show  the  superi- 
ority of  obedience  to  disobedience,  even  though  attended  with  sacri- 
fices, is  the  stronger  proof  it  affords  the  world  of  the  reality  and 
divinity  of  the  Christian  religion. 

This  is  no  small  consideration,  when  we  reflect  that  it  is  mainly 
through  the  practical  exhibition  of  the  advantages  of  Christianity 
that  men  are  to  be  brought  to  accredit  and  espouse  it.     "Let  your 


OBEDIENCE  BETTER   THAN   SACRIFICE.  211 

light  so  shine  before  men,  that  they  may  see  your  good  works,  and 
glorify  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  The  salvation  of  the  world 
is  made  to  depend  upon  the  shining  of  true  religion  in  the  lives  of 
believers.  It  is  not  difficult  to  determine  which  of  two  characters 
makes  the  best  impression  upon  the  mind  of  an  observer — one  dis- 
tinguished for  uniform  observance  of  duty,  that  moves  on  steadily  in 
the  path  of  uprightness,  or  one  marred  by  irregularities  of  conduct 
and  temper,  and  yet  expects  the  favor  of  God  and  the  church  by 
occasional  or  frequent  sacrifices.  Men  will  try  Christianity  by  its 
practical  fruits,  as  seen  in  its  professors.  What  does  it  accomplish 
for  mankind  ?  To  this  test,  every  theory  of  every  science  which 
claims  public  confidence  is  brought.  Does  it  belong  to  the  natural 
sciences  ?  Then,  is  it  supported  by  facts  ?  Is  it  a  new  measure  in 
politics  ?  Then,  does  it  work  well  ?  Of  what  advantage  is  it  to  the 
nation  ?  If  none,  time  and  common  sense  soon  work  its  destruction, 
and  it  is  only  remembered  as  the  vagary  of  some  dreamer.  Those 
who  want  the  time  or  the  disposition  to  investigate  the  original 
sources  of  scriptural  evidence  will  judge  of  the  title  of  Christianity 
to  belief  by  its  effects  in  the  church.  Does  it  make  its  possessor  a 
better  parent,  child,  neighbor,  citizen  ?  Is  he  more  faithful  to  en- 
gagements— happier,  sweeter,  holier,  in  temper  and  word  ?  Does  it 
efi'ect  more  for  him  than  worldliness  does  for  the  worldling  ?  If  the 
Christian  can  show  the  power  of  Divine  grace  to  transform  the 
nature,  to  restrain  lu  prosperity,  and  to  transmute  th'e  sorrows  of  life 
into  joys,  then  will  his  influence  for  good  be  positive  and  efi'ective. 
But  the  world  will  hoot  the  man  from  its  presence,  and  with  him  the 
religion  he  professes,  who  has  the  hardihood  to  attempt  to  hoodwink 
it  with  his  large  behests  to  charity,  when  it  knows,  and  he  knows, 
that  he  is  daily  breaking  the  plainest  laws  of  love. 

But  let  Christianity  be  brought  to  this  inflexible  standard.  Go  to 
the  career  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  !  Behold  Him  as  He  traverses  the 
hills  and  valleys  of  Palestine,  as  He  threads  the  streets  of  Jerusalem 
and  Capernaum  !  His  whole  life  teems  with  mercy;  His  lips  are  ever 
breathing  words  of  wisdom  and  consolation ;  His  hands  are  ever  open 
with  acts  of  love  and  healing ;  His  feet  are  ever  swift  on  errands  of 
kindness  and  relief;  and  when  He  pauses  in  His  way,  it  is  to  impart 
strength  to  the  faint  and  sinking  heart,  deeming  this  a  greater  proof 
of  His  messiahship  than  to  pronounce  an  eloquent  discourse  upon 
His  divinity !     "  He  went  about  doing  good."     Jesus  Christ  came 


212        OBEDIENCE  BETTER  THAN  SACRIFICE. 

from  heaven,  not  simply  to  teach,  and  to  atone,  but  to  clothe  in  flesh 
and  blood  the  sublime  doctrines  and  precepts  which  he  came  to  estab- 
ligli — to  embody  in  living  form  those  immortal  principles  which  orig- 
inated in  the  infinite  benevolence  and  justice  of  God.  This  He  ac- 
complished, and  now  forever  remains  an  example  unto  us,  that  as  He 
was,  even  so  we  should  be,  in  this  world.  And  from  these  principles, 
as  so  many  seed-powers  in  the  hearts  of  His  disciples,  have  grown 
the  great  philanthropic  institutions  of  the  day,  which  constitute  the 
crowning  glory  of  modern  civilization. 

I  am  glad  that  Jesus  lived  among  the  people,  met  and  answered 
the  great  questions  and  difficulties  of  ordinary  life.  I  am  not  less 
happy  in  the  conviction  that  His  religion  is  designed  not  alone  for  the 
scholar,  the  poet,  the  recluse,  if  at  all  for  them  as  such,  but  for  every- 
day people — people  who  have  to  do  with  the  things  which  occupy 

"  The  talk 

Man  holds  with  week-day  man  in  the  hourly  walk 

Of  the  world's  business." 
In  the  great  arena  of  the  world,  in  the  thickest  of  the  battle  of  life, 
amid  its  din  and  dust,  its  smoke  and  carnage,  the  Christian  is  to 
enter,  "  stand  in  his  lot  as  a  good  soldier,  devour  the  many  chagrins 
of  it,'"  fight  and  conquer,  and  thus  show  to  the  thronging  multitudes, 
the  brain  and  muscle  men  of  the  land,  that  Christianity  is  divine  be- 
cause human,  from  God  because  fit  for  man — that  it  can  make  a 
Christian  successful  on  Christian  principles,  can  transform  business 
into  means  of  grace,  transmute  gold  into  godliness,  conyert  the  hum 
of  industry  into  the  hymn  of  praise,  the  counting-room,  the  workshop, 
the  field,  into  a  temple  of  worship,  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  honor 
of  the  Redeemer ;  and  so  realize  the  glorious  symbol  of  the  prophetic 
vision,  "  In  that  day  shall  there  be  upon  the  bells  of  the  horses, 
Holiness  unto  the  Lord."  {Zach.,  xiv,  20.)  Infidelity  has 
striven  hard  to  drive  Christianity  from  practical  life.  Its  last  and 
convulsive  effort  was  to  out-do  it  in  works  of  humanity ;  and  wildly, 
though  plausibly,  theorizing  about  equality,  fraternity,  and  liberty,  it 
has  boastfully  said,  the  religion  of  sufi"ering  can  now  be  politely 
bowed  out  of  society,  as  no  longer  needed.  But  the  effort  has  proved 
a  failure,  and  this  day  the  credit  must  be  awarded  to  Christian  men, 
that  there  is  not  a  great  public  movement,  which  looks  to  the  ameli- 
oration of  the  race,  that  had  not  its  origin  in  their  hearts,  and  the 
prosecution  of  which  is  not  in  their  hands.     And  this  shall  be  till 


OBEDIENCE   BETTER   THAN   SACRIFICE.  213 

"  Change  wide  and  deep,  and  silently  performed, 
This  land  shall  -witness ;  and  as  days  roll  on, 
Earth's  universal  frame  shall  feel  the  effect, 
Even  till  the  smallest  habitable  rock. 
Beaten  by  lonely  billows,  hear  the  songs 
Of  humanized  society,  and  bloom 
"With  civil  arts,  that  send  their  fragrance  forth, 
A  grateful  tribute  to  all-ruling  Heaven." 

Christians !  your  weapon  for  the  conquest  of  the  world  is  obedi- 
ence. Your  sacrifices,  if  they  spring  from  it,  will  have  power  over 
the  hearts  of  men,  and  be  acceptable  to  God ;  but  as  atonements  for 
sin,  substitutes  for  integrity,  never !  One  sacrifice  alone  can  be  re- 
ceived as  vicarious  for  sin,  and  it  solely  because  obedience  without 
it  was  impossible.  "  There  remaineth  now,  therefore,  no  more  sac- 
rifice for  sin."  And  what  is  remarkable,  that  great  sacrifice,  made 
once  for  all  to  put  away  sin,  was  itself  an  act  of  obedience.  "  Lo,  I 
come  to  do  Thy  will,  0  God."  It  is  your  constant  exemplification 
of  the  Gospel,  in  its  rich  experience  and  practice,  which  will  do  more 
to  win  souls  to  Jesus  than  all  the  professions  of  the  mighty,  the  ben- 
efactions of  the  wealthy ;  nay,  more  than  all  the  sermons  and  writings 
of  the  wise  and  good.  Plerein  lies  the  real  need  of  the  times — holi- 
ness to  the  Lord.  Regular  living,  regular  praying,  working,  and 
giving,  patient  continuance  in  well-doing,  in  all  that  is  pure,  lovely, 
and  of  good  report,  will  impart  to  the  church's  forces  and  appliances 
a  grand  and  mighty  momentum,  which  will  bear  down  all  opposition. 
Her  progress,  like  the  awful  and  sublime  sweep  of  the  spheres, 
though  silent,  will  be  certain  and  glorious.  So  shall  the  Gospel  be 
vindicated  from  the  foul  aspersion  that  salvation  by  faith  in  an  atone- 
ment is  only  an  invention  of  orthodoxy,  to  rid  men  of  the  responsi- 
bility of  obedience  by  devising  an  easy  and  wholesale  remedy  for 
their  abominations.  "Do  we,  then,  make  void  the  law  of  God 
through  faith  ?  God  forbid ;  yea,  we  establish  the  law."  This  con- 
stitutes the  perpetually  recurring  miracle  of  Christianity — "  the  sign 
which  shall  never  be  cut  ofi"" — the  works  which  Christ's  disciples 
shall  do  in  all  ages  greater  than  His  own  works,  because  performed 
on  a  more  wide-spread  scale,  and  more  comprehensive  in  their  results. 
From  all  which  let  us  learn,  that  "  To  obey  is  better  than  sacrifice  j  " 
and  "  To  love  God  with  all  the  heart,  and  with  all  the  understanding, 
and  with  all  the  soul,  and  with  all  the  strength,  and  to  love  one's 
neighbor  as  himself,  is  more  than  all  burnt  offerings  and  sacrifices." 


216        THE    STRENGTH   AND   THE   WEAKNESS   OF   YOUTH. 

We  see  how  an  Apostle,  wise  both  from  age  and  from  grace,  ad- 
dressed a  band  of  Christian  young  men,  whose  strength  was  of  the 
most  unquestionable  quality — moral  strength — tested  already  by  holy 
enterprise — a  godly  energy  exhibiting  the  highest  type  of  young 
manhood. 

And  then,  how  should  we  address  the  young  men  of  this  congre- 
gation ? 

That  too  should  depend  upon  who  and  what  they  are.  As  this  is 
beyond  my  power  to  determine,  it  is  safe  and  therefore  proper  not  to 
assume  too  much.  I  cannot  say,  in  the  full  latitude  of  the  Apostle's 
expression,  "  Ye  have  overcome  the  wicked  one,  and  the  Word  of 
God  abideth  in  you."  This  thought  may  better  come  in  by-and-by 
for  an  exhortation,  rather  than  now  as  a  congratulation. 

I  assume,  therefore,  only  one  thing — that  being  young,  you  are 
strong — strong,  in  some  sense  of  that  word. 

Let  it  be  my  object  to  indicate  how  a  young  man's  strength  may 
be  made  perfect,,  in  all  senses  of  the  word.  And  may  He,  without 
whom  nothing  is  strong  or  holy,  be  with  me  to  speak,  and  with  you 
to  hear. 

<'  I  have  written  unto  you,  young  men,  because  ye  are  strong." 

If  we  should  cast  about  for  a  living  type  of  strength,  I  apprehend 
it  would  come  to  our  minds  in  the  shape  of  young  manhood. 

•  Other  attributes  might  embody  themselves  before  us  in  different 
forms. 

For  gentleness  and  sensibility,  the  image  would  be  a  woman ;  for 
docility  and  dependence,  a  child  clinging  to  his  father's  hand  as  he 
walked ;  for  rugged,  persistent  fortitude,  a  full-aged  man  of  forty- 
five,  inured  to  trial,  care-hardened  beyond  the  melting  of  tears; 
while  for  caution  and  slowness  of  judgment,  the  picture  should  be 
that  of  an  old  man  at  the  fireside,  dealing  out  parcels  of  experience. 
■  But  for  living,  effective  power,  the  human  type  is  a  young  man. 
His  step  is  a  stride.  The  lighting  down  of  his  arm  is  a  blow.  His 
very  standing  still  is  strong ;  and  if  he  could  then  b^e  transformed 
into  marble,  that  statuary  quiet  would  still  betray  the  strength 
creeping  unconsciously  through  every  limb  and  muscle,  and  bespeak 
the  bounding  of  a  heart  against  its  stony  ribs. 

Mere  resisting  weight  might  seem  to  be  wanting,  but  the  constant 
self-restoring  energy  compensates  that  lack,  and  makes  up  that  sum 
total  of  momentum  which  is  strength. 


THE   STRENGTH   AND  THE  WEAKNESS  OF  YOUTH.       217 

Physically,  therefore,  young  manhood,  in  its  normal  shape,  is  the 
truest  impersonation  of  power. 

And  this  outward  man  is  a  not  untrue  index  of  that  which  is 
within.  If  the  muscles  swell,  it  is  because  the  spirit  within  is  a 
galvanic  battery,  simmering  and  seething  with  the  ceaseless  produc- 
tion of  power.  If  the  red  blood  mantles  the  cheek,  it  is  from  the 
soul  working  at  the  heart.  If  the  step  is  strong,  it  is  because  the 
will  is  determined.  If  the  eye  flashes,  it  is  because  there  is  hope 
and  daring  and  ambition  looking  through  the  eye  to  the  mind's  great 
ideal.  So  that  a  young  man's  real  strength  is  begotten  of  his  spir- 
itual nature.  Let  us  dissect  his  spiritual  frame,  then,  and  discover 
the  elements  of  this  inworking  power. 

I.  First,  then,  young  manhood  is  the  period  of  strong  passions 
and  appetites.  They  come  out  then  into  their  first  license,  and  some 
of  them  into  their  first  consciousness,  and,  like  everything  else  in 
nature,  they  work  strongest  when  first  developed.  By-and-by  they 
will  be  exhausted  with  over-action,  or  wearied  out  with  defeat,  and 
will  live  only  in  the  insensible  form  of  habits.  But  now  they  are 
rampant,  self-conscious,  importunate.  They  make  large  demands  on 
the  life,  and  use  up  a  large  share  of  its  vigor.  They  Avork  them- 
selves in  among  the  motives  of  the  soul.  They  color  the  sentiments, 
dictate  the  tastes,  engross  the  time,  and  sometimes  shape  the  whole 
path,  of  a  young  man's  daily  life.  They  develop  the  full  power  of 
his  animal  nature  as  it  never  has  been  before,  nor  -tvill  be  at  all  if 
not  now.  The  capacity  for  wickedness  is  measured  by  the  strength 
and  indulgence  of  the  passions.  The  highest  reach  of  virtue  will 
consist  in  the  power  to  bridle  and  subdue  them.  Which  of  the  two 
is  the  great  problem  for  a  young  man  to  determine  for  himself?  This 
is  the  crisis  in  the  life  of  the  passions  and  in  his  life.  As  they  are 
sovereign,  he  is  a  poor  slave.  As  they  are  controlled,  he  is  a  man — 
free,  lord  of  creation,  because  master  of  himself. 

Again,  in  the  second  place,  the  period  of  young  manhood  is  apt  to 
be  the  period  of  pride — a  strong  power  for  good  or  evil — a  grand  or 
a  mean  quality — the  prompter  of  a  noble  ambition  if  well  directed, 
or  else  degenerating  into  self-conceit  and  forcible  feebleness — making 
a  man  a  hero  or  a  dandy,  a  Webster  or  only  a  Brummcll. 

When  a  youth  is  just  let  loose  from  the  restraints  of  boyhood,  and 
sent  out  to  take  a  man's  part  in  the  world,  feeling  the  freedom  in  his 
very  veins,  what  can  be  more  natural  than  that  all  other  importance 


218        THE   STRENGTH   AND   THE   WEAKNESS   OF  YOUTH. 

should  dwindle  by  the  side  of  his  own  ?  The  world  is  all  before  him, 
and  seems  to  be  all  for  him.  He  longs  to  try  his  new-fledged  pin- 
ions— to  realize  his  ambition  to  show  how  he  can  do  the  world's 
work  in  less  time  than  other  men,  and  succeed  where  they  have 
failed.  Full  of  self-reliance,  he  cannot  but  be  sanguine.  He  scouts 
advice,  calls  caution  cowardice,  and,  as  his  life  has  been  without  ex- 
perience, he  has  no  such  word  in  his  vocabulary.  He  knows  enough 
already,  and  pronounces  on  all  subjects  like  a  master. 

I  need  not  stop  to  delineate  all  the  workings  in  and  out  of  this 
youthful  pride.  Its  features,  color,  and  expression,  are  familiar  to  us 
all.  It  is  enough  for  our  purpose  to  recognise  it  as  one  of  the  forces 
which  go  far  to  determine  the  character  of  young  men,  and  so  as  a 
part  of  their  strength. 

Next  to  this,  in  the  third  place,  is  another  co-ordinate  force,  viz  : 
self-will. 

This  is  an  offshoot  of  the  sense  of  freedom  which  I  have  men- 
tioned, and  grows  naturally  out  of  the  first  consciousness  of  power. 

As  the  will  is  itself  only  an  executive  faculty,  receiving  its  im- 
pulse from  other  forces  of  the  character,  its  quality  will  be  deter- 
mined by  theirs. 

Give  up  a  young  man's  will  to  his  passions  and  his  pride,  and  it 
will  seem  as  if  there  were  a  master  demon  driving  him,  with  his  eyes 
open,  to  destruction.  If  he  is  thwarted,  he  rebels.  If  he  is  defeated, 
he  commits  suicide. 

When  I  thus  name  passion,  pride,  and  self-will,  as  the  great  con- 
stitutional forces  in  the  character  of  youth,  do  I  not  draw  a  picture 
in  which  the  shadows  predominate  over  the  lights  ? 

Is  it  not  evident  that  such  a  character  needs  some  compensating 
force  on  the  other  side — some'  element  of  strength  to  overmatch 
these,  and  forefend  their  mischief? — specially  when  you  look, abroad, 
aiid  think  of  the  age  and  the  land  we  live  in,  and  of  all  the  peculiar 
influences  that  mould  the  character  here. 

In  our  country,  everything  is  precocious.  Under  o;ir  institutions, 
all  are  free.  By  our  system,  the  child  is  not  ftither  of  the  man;  the 
child  is  the  man.  The  spirit  of  independence  is  breathed  in  with 
the  atmosphere,  and  nurtured  by  education.  The  theory  of  inde- 
pendence is  lisped  from  the  school-book,  and  trumpeted  from  the 
platform  and  the  stump.  The  effects  of  it  flash  and  coruscate  through 
the  whole  illuminated  path  of  our  history.     Our  admirable  achieve- 


THE    STRENGTH   AND   THE   WEAKNESS    OF   YOUTH.        219 

meats,  in  war  and  peace,  are  its  legitimate  fruits.  Our  national 
energy,  a  proverb  now  throughout  the  world,  is  the  exponent  of  it — 
full  of  emphasis,  full  of  meaning. 

But  the  national  energy  is  only  the  energy  of  individuals  aggre- 
gated into  a  mass.  And  energy  itself  is  only  another  name  for  strong 
power  of  will. 

When,  then,  our  young  men  are  sent  out  at  an  earlier  age  than 
those  of  any  other  nation  to  wield  the  responsibilities  of  life,  in  the 
mart  and  in  the  forum,  with  their  faculties  thus  grown  under  the 
influences  of  independence,  does  not  the  thought  gather  emphasis — 
a  solemn  emphasis,  too — that  there  needs  to  be  a  compensating 
power  to  overrule  the  strength  of  our  young  men,  and  to  guide  it  9-II 
to  good  ?  Is  there,  then,  in  the  character  of  youth,  no  such  force, 
latent  or  active  ? 

There  is,  thank  God  for  it,  a  place  for  such  a  power — a  central 
place  dug  deeply  by  the  finger  of  God  into  the  nature  of  every  man, 
in  his  very  heart  of  hearts ;  I  mean  the  conscience.  Every  man  has 
the  sense  of  it,  for  every  man  knows  the  difi'erence  between  ought  and 
ought  not.  But  it  is  not,  alas  !  a  faculty  so  commonly  developed  in 
young  men  as  to  be  pronounced  characteristic.  It  forms  no  essential 
part  of  his  strength,  but  it  is  indispensable  in  order  to  make  his  strength 
safe.  It  is  the  only  power  to  control  effectually  his  passions,  his  pride, 
and  his  self-will.  It  will  do  this,  for  conscience  is  of  royal  pedigree. 
Its  nature  is  divine.    Its  authority  is  telegraphed  down  from  heaven. 

When  God  shaped  the  human  soul,  and  assigned  to  each  faculty 
its  place,  He  reserved  one  high  and  central  seat,  which  He  canopied 
with  His  own  peculiar  glory ;  and  there  He  enthroned  the  conscience 
to  be  ruler  over  the  soul,  as  the  viceroy  of  the  soul's  creating  God. 
From  its  presence  and  power  springs  the  whole  sense  of  moral  obli- 
gation. Its  presence  is  like  a  felt  omniscience.  Its  power  is  like 
the  thought,  ''  Thou,  God,  seest  me."  We  may  profess  to  ignore  it, 
may  violate  it,  even  dethrone  it.  But  it  is  kingly,  even  in  the  dust. 
We  cannot  meet  its  eye,  though  it  be  prostrate,  and  not  feel  that  it 
is  a  prostrate  majesty,  whose  rebuke  and  threat  remind  us  of  a  terri- 
ble judgment.  If  we  could  suppose  a  person  to  be  deprived  of  it, 
he  would  have  lost  the  glory  of  his  faculties — would  be  a  moral 
idiot.  No  man  can  be  the  man  God  meant  him  to  be,  unless  the 
conscience  occupies  its  rightful  place  of  authority.  Let  this  wanting 
element  be  supplied  to  the  strength  of  young  men,  and  their  strength 


220        THE   STRENGTH  AND   THE   WEAKNESS   OF  YOUTH. 

is  perfect.  The  passions,  instead  of  consuming  tlie  very  material  of 
feeling,  will  lend  their  fire  to  other  faculties,  and  become  cooled  into 
lawful  and  genial  desires.  The  sentiment  of  pride  will  expand  itself 
into  the  holy  ambition  of  achieving  a  Christ-like  character.  The 
overmastering  will,  no  longer  a  perverse  and  profane  self-will,  will 
be  turned  in  consecration  to  the  will  of  God.  So  will  the  young 
man  have  "  overcome  the  wicked  one  " — the  devil  without,  or  that 
other  devil  within  him,  viz  :  his  own  selfish  self. 

But  though  I  thus  speak  of  conscience  as  the  chief  faculty  of 
the  human  soul,  let  us  remember  it  is  still  of  the  soul,  and,  though 
divine  in  its  authority,  is  still  in  its  infirmities  human.  The  lower 
faculties  may  become  higher  than  it.  Passion  may  blind  it,  pride 
pervert  it,  self-will  supplant  it.  Hence  conscience  needs  a  foreign 
aid  to  establish  its  power  and  use  in  the  great  experiment  of  life. 
It  needs  the  tutelage  of  a  better  life  than  this.  It  needs  a  revela- 
tion. The  guaranty  of  our  moral  strength  is  conscience  taught  by 
the  Word  of  God.  "Ye  are  strong,"  says  the  Apostle,  "and  the 
Word  of  God  abideth  in  you."  See  what  omnipresent  sufficiency 
there  is  in  the  Word  of  God  to  be  the  director  of  a  young  man's 
conscience,  by  meeting  his  nature  in  all  the  forms  of  its  trial.  See 
how  comprehensive  its  instruction,  which  the  Apostle  sums  up  in  a 
phrase,  "  Love  not  the  world." 

■  He  does  not  mean  the  natural  world,  with  its  green  beauty,  its 
glorious  garniture  of  sky  and  sea  and  rock,  of  field  and  forest,  of 
sunlight  and  shadow,  feeding  the  taste  and  stirring  the  imagination ; 
nor  the  natural  world,  with  its  secrets  of  science,  its  mechanism  and 
laws,  its  geologies  and  botanies  and  astronomies — the  world  of  gran- 
ite, of  flowers,  or  of  stars — a  boundless  field  of  mental  activities.  He 
does  not  mean,  "  Love  not  the  world  "  of  human  life,  its  social  organ- 
izations, its  friendships  and  home  scenes — ^yea,  its  commerce,  its 
enterprise,  its  collisions  of  thought,  its  strife  and  battle  of  improve- 
ment. He  does  not  mean,  turn  hermit,  as  if  you  could  scourge 
your  loves  by  hunger,  or  scarify  your  soul  with  a  hair  shirt.  God's 
Word  is  genial,  not  ascetic. 

But  "  love  not  the  world  "  in  its  antagonism  to  conscience  and  the 
soul  and  immortality.  Love  it  not  in  its  three  potential  forms  of  sin — 
"  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eye,  and  the  pride'  of  life  " — 
"for  these  are  not  of  the  Father,  but  of  the  world,"  and  pass  away 
with  it,  and  are  therefore  not  enough  for  your  immortality. 


THE  STRENGTH   AND   THE   WEAKNESS    OF   YOUTH.        221 

"  As  the  "Word  of  Grod  abideth  in  you,  you  will  be  exempt  from 
profane  loves,  and  will  overcome  the  world ;  bring  thus  your  moral 
streogth  to  bear  against  this  triple  alliance  of  the  wicked  one."  This 
is  what  he  wrote  to  the  young  men  then. 

The  skies  are  changed,  but  are  we  changed  ?  Is  there  nothing  in 
the  passions,  pride,  and  self-will,  of  early  manhood,  that  finds  its  nat- 
ural expression  in  "  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eye,  and  the 
pride  of  life,"  now,  as  much  as  ever  ?  Look  around  you.  Look 
within.  You  cannot  leave  this  house  of  God,  to  find  your  homes 
to-night,  but  you  will  meet  with  some  meretricious  tempter — the  lust 
of  the  flesh  incarnated  and  adorned — the  "  wicked  one  "  dressed  in 
human  witchery,  to  beguile  you  to  the  chambers  of  pollution.  You 
cannot  join  your  associates  to-morrow,  but  some  gross  tongue  will 
suggest  gross  thoughts  of  that  indulgence  which  "  hardens  all  within, 
and  petrifies  the  feeling." 

To  keep  down  this  prurient  lust,  to  make  it  wait  on  conscience 
and  the  soul,  you  need  to  counteract  its  young  strength  with  the  in- 
dwelling "Word  of  God.  You  need  to  reinforce  the  claims  of  your 
moral  nature  by  the  truths  of  another  life.  You  need  to  recall  the 
solemn  testimony  of  the  Bible,  that  you  have  a  soul  to  save,  an  eter- 
nity to  win,  a  God  to  serve  whose  smile  or  frown  is  to  you  as  life  or 
death.  Conscience  needs  this  flaming  sword,  turning  every  way  to 
guard  the  entrance  of  your  soul,  and  keep  it  pure — a  reclaimed  Para- 
dise, where  God  will'dwell  with  your  spirit  aff'ectionately.  Your  heart 
needs  to  be  regenerated  by  this  indwelling  "Word,  so  that  love  divine 
shall  supplant  and  overshadow  the  lusts  of  the  flesh,  and  that  all 
"  carnal  afiections  may  die,  and  all  things  belonging  to  the  Spirit 
may  live  and  grow." 

This  will  save  a  young  man  from  being  consumed,  body  and  soul, 
by  his  passions.  The  fire  of  his  nature,  instead  of  burning  like  a 
hell  within  him,  will  be  transformed  into  the  glow  of  godliness,  and 
he  will  be  "strong"  in  the  victory  over  his  lusts. 

Another  of  the  enemies  of  the  young  man  is  "the  lust  of  the  eye," 
a  part  of  "  the  world  "  which  he  must  not  love.  I  understand  this 
expression  to  denote  the  desire  for  those  objects  which  are  not  neces- 
sary for  life  or  comfort,  but  only  to  be  hoarded  like  riches,  or  to  be 
displayed,  like  fashionable  dress,  a  showy  equipage,  a  gorgeous  man- 
sion. If  ever  young  men  were  in  danger  of  this  sin  of  the  world, 
it  is  our  young  men.    How  many  of  them,  when  entering  on  a  clerk- 


222       THE   STRENGTH  AND   THE  WEAKNESS   OF  YOUTH. 

ship,  propose  to  themselves  this  distinct  aim,  viz :  to  he  rich,  not  for 
usefulness,  nor  even  for  enjoyment,  but  simply  for  the  sake  of  dying 
rich ;  not  to  feed  the  hungry  with  their  surplusage,  to  clothe  the 
naked,  support  the  Gospel,  endow  a  hospital,  but  to  build  splendidly, 
and  outdo  their  peers  in  pomp  and  sumptuousness. 

The  desire  for  gain  is  not  necessarily  mischievous.  Every  man 
who  undertakes  a  business  has  a  right  to  urge  it  on  to  its  most  bril- 
liant result. 

Few  things  are  so  interesting  in  our  survey  of  life  as  successful 
enterprise.  It  tells  well  for  mankind,  helps  the  community,  advances 
civilization.  But  when  the  impulse  springs  from  the  mere  love  of 
money,  the  moral  of  the  story  is  changed.  When  a  man .  has  con- 
centrated all  his  hopes  and  aspirations  to  simple  gain ;  when  he  has 
narrowed  and  pointed  his  whole  spiritual  consciousness  towards  the 
next  piece  of  coin,  and  compressed  his  soul  within  the  periphery  of 
a  dollar — I  speak  not  of  the  pitiful  exhibition  he  makes  of  human- 
ity, but  looking  at  him  through  the  glass  of  God's  immortal  truth — 
I  ask  you  to  note  and  tremble  while  you  note  the  profane  prostitution 
of  the  moral  sense,  the  scorn  of  his  conscience,  the  gross  idolatry  of 
this  man  of  Christendom,  idolatry  as  gross  as  a  heathen's,  and  far  worse 
in  its  moral  complexion,  because  the  Christian-born  man  knows  better. 
Whether  \\\q  lust  of  the  eye  take  this  or  the  other  form  of  display 
and  fashion,  let  the  young  man  fortify  himself  against  it.  It  will 
make  dishonest  clerks  and  mean  men.  Whatever  else  might  restrain 
him  from  crime,  his  conscience  will  not.  He  may  be  afraid  of  the 
"  lock-up,"  he  may  even  have  sensibility  enough  to  stand  in  whole- 
some awe  of  State  street  and  the  brokers'  board.  ]^ut  beware  of  him. 
He  gets  his  morality  from  mammon.  To  this  god  of  his  idolatry  he 
has  given  himself  a  holocaust,  body  and  soul,  and  very  soon,  it  may 
be,  no  fraud  will  be  too  stupendous  for  his  gloating  avarice.  It  will 
seize  the  treasury  of  a  railroad,  or  gorge  a  Mexican  mine;'  and  if 
detection  stares  his  felony  in  the  face,  he  has,  as  his  grand  offset, 
flight,  exile  and  death  in  a  foreign  land,  or  a  dose  of  strychnine  in 
his  own  chamber.  Would  a  young  man  bo  saved  f/om  this  moral 
ruin,  at  which  angels  might  weep  and  demons  laugh,  let  him  have 
the  Word  of  God  abiding  in  him.  Let  him  learn  the  godlike  use  of 
riches.  Let  him  understand  that  wealth  is  a  divine  power,  with 
which  he  may  imitate  his  Maker,  dispense  benefits  to  the  world, 
bring  sinners  to  the  Saviour,  and  make  the  unrighteous  mammon 


THE   STRENGTH   AND   THE   WEAKNESS   OF  YOUTH.       223 

purchase  habitations  in  heaven.  With  this  for  his  grand  ultimate, 
he  may  hiy  forth  his  whole  energies  to  the  strife  of  gain.  His  strong 
will  shall  no  longer  be  a  moral  weakness,  but  a  power  co-ordinate 
with  conscience  itself,  and  the  lust  of  the  eye  looking  eagerly  for 
useless  gains  will  be  reformed  into  the  sacred  passion  of  doing  good. 

Now,  once  more  let  us  contemplate  another  temptation  of  a  young 
man,  levelled  point  blank  at  one  of  his  strongest  propensities.  "  The 
pride  of  life,"  St.  John  calls  it,  which  I  understand  to  mean  the  in- 
centives to  youthful  ambition.  It  may  take  many  shapes,  but  its 
common  American  forms  are  the  pride  of  intellect,  the  ambition  of 
political  distinction,  and  the  love  of  office,  sometimes  all  combined 
in  one. 

Every  American  is  a  politician ;  a  zealous  politician  is  naturally  ia 
partisan,  and  the  reward  of  partisan  devotion  is  office. 

There  is  hardly  any  bane  of  morality  so  deadly  as  strict  devotion 
to  party  interests  and  the  strife  for  place.  A  mere  politician  must 
have  two  consciences — one  for  himself  and  another  for  his  party;  and 
these,  being  mutually  destructive  of  each  other,  are  equivalent  to  no 
conscience  at  all.  He  must  connive  at  practices  that  he  would  not 
dare  to  own,  and  resort  to  shifts  that  would  compromise  any  private 
reputation,  and  <?an  only  excuse  himself  to  his  better  self  by  the 
shameful  plea  of  the  necessity  of  the  party,  an  excuse  that  shows  him 
not  humble,  but  degraded;  not  modest,  but  mean;  not  bending  before 
a  true  majesty  for  that  divine  approval  which  will  make  him  a  truer 
and  a  nobler  man,  but  prostrate  and  flat  before  a  tyranny  so  base 
that  it  can  receive  no  devotion  which  is  not  debasement. 

Such  a  politician,  with  a  conscience  drugged  and  drunken  with 
ambition,  will  scruple  at  no  indirection,  w'ill  huckster  away  his  coun- 
try's honor  for  his  own  advancement,  and  perhaps  for  the  Presidency 
of  a  nation  of  freemen  will  lend  himself  to  a  conspiracy  against  the 
very  life  of  fi-ccdom  itself. 

In  what  melancholy  contrast  stands  this  type  of  political  partisan- 
ship to  him  who  was  the  grand  living  archetype  of  what  an  American 
politician  should  be — him  w'hom  we  lovingly  name  "  the  Father  of 
his  Country,"  who  by  subordinating  all  claims  to  the  sovereignty  of 
conscience,  turned  politics  into  patriotism,  and  made  devotion  to  the 
interests  of  his  country  identical  with  the  loftiest  virtue  of  man. 
What  our  politics  need,  even  to  starvation,  is  a  great  national  con- 
science.    Our  young  men  need  it  most  of  all,  for  they  are  the  nation 

\ 


224       THE   STRENGTH   AND   THE   WEAKNESS   OF   YOUTH. 

that  is  to  be.  They  need  the  felt  power  of  the  Word  of  God,  teach- 
ing them  that  the  Lord  reigneth,  let  the  people  tremble :  teaching 
them  that  nations  have  a  judgment  day;  that,  therefore,  parties  are 
amenable  to  the  tribunal  of  morality;  that  a  vote  is  a  moral  act,  and 
that  political  drill  without  conscience  is  a  sin. 

I  have  not  time  to  dwell  on  other  forms  of  pride  tempting  to  a 
young  man's  nature,  and  abhorrent  to  the  Word  and  Spirit  of  God. 
But  remember,  '*  by  that  sin  fell  the  angels,"  and  many  a  man  has  so 
made  shipwreck  of  his  salvation.  The  Bible  would  have  brought 
him  to  his  knees — kept  him  low  at  "  the  footstool,"  and  opened  up 
to  his  open  eye  of  faith  a  better  path  of  glory,  honor,  and  immortality. 
This  is  the  ambition  that  is  both  warrantable  and  •  saving— the  eagle 
pride  of  a  child  of  God,  soaring  high,  seeing  far,  and  not  afraid  to 
plunge  up  into  the  very  brightness  of  the  firmament,  coveting  a  place 
in  the  eternal  glory. 

Happy  the  young  man  who  has  learned  from  the  Word  of  God.  so 
to  exalt  his  pride.  He  need  not  eradicate  it  from  his  nature,  need 
not  crucify  it,  but  only  surrender  it  to  his  conscience,  and  then  this 
strong  point  of  his  character  will  be  his  salvation. 

And  now,  my  friends,  will  you  pardon  me  for  yet  one  closing  word. 

"  I  have  written  unto  you,  young  men,  because  ye  ai'e  strong." 

I  have  attempted  to  disclose  the  naturally  strong  traits  in  the  char- 
acter of  a  young  man,  and  to  show  that  unless  they  are  trained  by 
conscience,  this  natural  strength  is  moral  weakness;  but  that  when  so 
approved  and  sanctified,  the  fire  of  passion,  the  loftiness  of  pride,  and 
the  energy  of  self-will,  may  become  the  forces  of  a  great  and  holy 
character.  Conscience  being  the  ruler,  and  the  Word  of.  God  the 
rule,  the  young  man  may  battle  successfully  with  the  world's  lusts, 
and  be  crowned  in  heaven. 

As  I  speak  of  such  an  one,  I  almost  seem  to  see  him.  I  see  him 
in  the  first  noblest  act  of  loyalty  to  God  and  truth,  in  his  closet  on 
his  knees,  acknowledging  his  dependence  upon  sovereign  grace  and 
power;  there  surrendering  his  whole  being  to  Him  who  died  to  save 
him. 

I  see  him  next  in  the  street,  in  the  parlor,  in  the  gatherings  of 
young  men.  He  turns  a  deaf  ear  to  the  charmer;  he  refuses  the  in- 
toxicating cup ;  he  conquers  al)  the  lusts  of  the  flesh. 

I  see  him  in  the  counting  room,  the  shop,  the  workshop.  He  is  a 
faithful  clerk,  an  honest  cashier,  a  diligent  workman. 


THE   STRENGTH   AND   THE   WEAKNESS   OF  YOUTH.       225 

I  sec  him  in  the  strife  of  politics,  on  the  platform,  in  the  street 
canvass,  at  the  polls,  aiming  at  right  ends,  and  only  by  lawful  means. 

I  see  him  afterwards  as  a  man  with  his  earlier  virtues  grown  stout 
and  stiff  about  him — true,  honorable,  faithful  to  conscience.  His 
word  is  his  bond;  his  name  is  a  capital. 

I  follow  his  life  of  energy,  beneficence,  and  moral  worth,  as  it  is 
reinforced  by  conscientiousness  and  daily  prayer  and  the  Word  of 
God.     I  see  him,  in  a  word,  a  Christian  man. 

xVnd  then  I  see  him  die.  He  lifts  his  failing  voice,  and  murmurs, 
"  I  have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  finished  my  course,  I  have  kept 
the  faith — henceforth  there  is  a  crown  laid  up  for  me."  "  Not  unto 
me,  0  Lord,  not  unto  me,  but  unto  Thy  name  be  the  praise."  "  By 
the  grace  of  God,  I  am  what  I  am."  "  Thanks  be  to  God  who  giveth 
me  the  victory  through  Jesus  Christ  my  Lord."  Yes!  Victor^/ 
through  Jesus  Christ. 

His  chest  heaves  to  its  last  gasp  with  that  utterance,  and  he 
breathes  out  his  spirit  with  the  words  "victory  "  and  "  Christ "  still 
clinging  to  his  lips. 

And  then  I  see  him  no  more ;  but  we  know  where  the  victory  in 
Christ  is  crowned,  and  we  know  that  as  he  meets  his  ascended  Lord, 
he  feels  a  hand  of  blessing  on  his  head,  and  hears  a  thrilling  voice 
of  welcome,  "  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant,  enter  thou  into 
the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 

Young  men,  among  you  all,  whose  portrait  have  I  sketched  ? 


15 


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228  FELLOW-HELPERS   OP   THE   TRUTH. 

I.  Christian  Truth  has  a  great  icork  to  accomplish  in  this  world. 
Thus  saitli  the  Lord,  in  Isaiah,  Iv,  11 :  "As  the  rain  and  the  snow 
Cometh  down  from  heaven,  and  returneth  not  thither,  but  watereth 
the  earth  that  it  may  give  seed  to  the  sower  and  bread  to  the  eater, 
so  shall  my  word  be  that  goeth  forth  out  of  my  mouth ;  it  shall  not 
return  unto  me  void,  but  it  shall  accomplish  that  which  I  please ;  it 
shall  prosper  in  the  thing  whereunto  I  send  it."  Here,  you  per- 
ceive, this  truth,  sent  forth  by  the  Eternal,  on  a  definite  errand — to 
accomplish  a  distinct  purpose — to  effect  some  positive  "Ihing;"  and 
you  observe  the  pledge  of  the  resources  of  the  Godhead  to  secure  its 
prosperity  in  that  mission ;  for  He  saith,  "  It  shall  prosper  in  the 
thing  whereunto  I  send  it." 

What  is  that  mission  ?  It  is  a  work  for  God  and  for  man.  Look 
at  it,  first,  in  its  more  direct  relations  to  God.  Having  fitted  up  this 
world  to  be  the  residence  of  man,  and  then  having  created  him  in 
His  own  image,  and  so  constituted  him  that  his  highest  good  should 
be  connected  with  knowing,  loving,  and  serving  his  Creator,  both  a 
regard  for  His  own  glory,  as  well  as  for  His  creatures,  would  lead 
Him  to  desire  that  they  should  have  correct  views  of  His  char- 
acter— know  and  love  Him.  But  one  of  the  first  effects  of  sin 
on  man  was  to  lead  him  away  from  his  God,  and  a  characteristic 
feature  of  his  depravity  ever  since  has  been  false  notions  in  all  his 
conceptions  of  Divinity.  The  evidence  is  overwhelming,  that  the 
masses  of  men  have  no  true  ideas  of  the  nature,  character,  and  gov- 
ernment of  God.  On  this  account,  our  Lord  exclaimed,  "  Kighteous 
Father,  the  world  hath  not  known  Thee."  And  yet  the  decree,  old 
as  eternity,  was,  ''  The  earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
Lord."  The  promulgation  of  that  decree  was  followed  by  the  inten- 
sified edict,  "  As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord,  the  earth  shall  be  full  of  my 
glory."  And  the  mission  of  truth  is,  like  an  opening  day,  to  dissi- 
pate this  blinding  darkness,  and  present  God  with  the  clearness  of  a 
noontide  sun  in  a  cloudless  sky,  as  the  Creator  and  lawful  Sovereign 
of  this  world ;  to  proclaim,  with  a  voice  rotund  and  distinct  as  a 
trumpet-tone,  majestic  and  authoritative  as  the  thundering  of  Sinai, 
"  Jehovah,  He  is  God,  and  beside  Him  there  is  none  other ; "  and 
to  enforce  upon  each  and  every  human  being  the.  practical  exhorta- 
tion, "Acquaint  now  thyself  with  Him,  and  be  at  peace;  thereby 
shall  good  come  unto  thee." 

Consider  next  this  work  in  its  more  direct  relations   to  man. 


FELLOW-HELPERS   OF   THE  TRUTH.  229 

Through  its  instrumentality,  men  are  not  only  to  receive  correct 
views  of  God,  but  of  themselves.  False  notions  of  our  own  real 
character,  higher  duties,  and  destiny,  inevitably  result  from  false 
notions  of  God ;  they  have  sprung  up  spontaneously  from  the  soil  of 
human  depravity,  and  systems  of  error  have  contributed  to  support 
and  nourish  them.  And  God  hath  foreordained  that  His  truth  shall 
consume  all  these  noxious  developments  of  depravity,  and  be  "  quick 
and  powerful,  sharper  than  a  two-edged  sword,  piercing  even  to  the 
dividing  asunder  of  soul  and  spirit,  the  joints  and  the  marrow,  and 
be  a  discerner  of  the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart."  In  the  pros- 
ecution of  this  work,  divine  truth  reveals  to  us,  that  with  all  our 
supposed  goodness,  we  are  wicked  sinners;  with  all  our  apparent 
innocence,  we  are  guilty  sinners;  with  all  our  wealth,  we  are  poor 
sinners;  with  all  our  freedom,  we  are  enslaved  sinners;  with  all  our 
light,  we  are  blind  sinners;  with  all  our  knowledge,  we  are  ignorant 
sinners;  with  all  our  power,  we  are  helpless  sinners;  with  all  our 
life,  we  are  spiritually  dead  sinners — who,  left  to  ourselves,  will,  must 
be  inevitably  lost. 

Another  object  of  truth,  in  this  relation,  is  tcf  exhibit  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  as  a  Saviour  exactly  adapted  to  the  necessities  of  such 
sinners — to  exhibit,  not  the  ethereal  Christ  of  a  transcendental  im- 
agination— not  the  dead  Christ  of  a  christianized  paganism — not  the 
cold,  creature  Christ  of  a  baptized  infidelity,  but  the  living,  loving 
Christ  of  the  Bible,  in  the  essential  divinity  of  His  nature,  the  virtue 
of  His  vicarious  atonement,  the  infinitude  of  His  love,  the  perfection 
of  His  salvation,  the  universality  of  His  ofi'ers  of  mercy,  and  His 
complete  adaptation  to  the  necessities  of  guilty,  condemned,  helpless, 
blind,  poor,  dead  sinners.  And  while,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  an 
almighty  agent  gives  the  essential  efficiency,  still  it  is  affirmed  that 
"  The  Word  of  the  Lord  is  perfect,  converting  the  soul;  "  that  "  We 
are  begotten  by  the  Word  of  truth ; "  that  "  Wc  are  to  be  sanctified 
through  the  truth ; "  that  we  are  to  "  purify  our  souls,"  by  ''  obeying 
the  truth." 

Now,  the  direct  and  resultant  influence  of  Christianity,  while  ful- 
filling these  purposes,  is  so  great  as  to  permeate  everything  around 
us  in  this  land,  and  be  observable  in  every  direction.  You  may  see 
it  in  our  school-houses  as  well  as  our  sanctuaries,  at  our  weddings  as 
well  as  our  funerals,  brooding  with  maternal  tenderness  over  our 
family  circles,  guiding  and  giving  wholesome  vitality  to  our  business 


230  FELLOW-HELPERS   OF   THE   TRUTH. 

enterprises,  generating  and  fostering  noble  charities  and  public 
reforms,  moulding  and  sustaining  our  political  institutions,  directing 
and  guarding  our  national  destiny.  Yea,  we  have  seen  thousands 
coming  to  it  out  of  darkness,  and  being  illumined — for  "  it  is  a  sun ; " 
we  have  seen  diseased  and  crippled  ones  come  to  it  and  be  healed — 
for  it  is  a  "  Bethesda  pool ; "  we  have  seen  throngs  come  from  life's 
dusty  chase,  thirsty  and  faint,  and  drink — for  it  is  a  "  well  of  living 
waters  j "  we  have  seen  hungry  souls  come  to  it,  eat,  and  be  satis- 
fied— for  it  is  the  "bread  of  life;"  we  have  seen  penitent  sinners 
come  to  it,  bowed  with  guilt,  and  go  away  rejoicing — for  '^jt  is  a 
mercy-seat;"  we  have  seen  afflicted  ones,  tossed  on  the  stormy 
waves,  come  to  it  and  become  settled — for  it  is  an  "  anchor  sure  and 
steadfast;"  we  have  seen  dying  ones  press  it  to  their  expiring 
bosoms,  and  heard  them  exclaim,  "  0  Death,  where  is  thy 
sting?" — for  it  insures  resurrection  and  eternal  life!"  Thus, 
my  brethren,  is  divine  truth  wondrously  adapted  to  the  wor-k 
assigned  it!  Have  we  not  found  it  so  in  our  personal  experience? 
Hath  it  not  been  unto  us  the  "  Word  of  our  salvation  ?  "  Hath  it 
not  made  us  free  then  in  Christ  Jesus  ?  Hath  it  not  been  to  us  a 
firm  basis  of  hope  in  hours  of  despair,  strength  in  hours  of  weakness, 
joy.  in  hours  of  sorrow,  encouragement  in  hours  of  despondency, 
light  in  hours  of  darkness  ?  And  how  inexhaustible  the  system  of 
divine  truth  is !  Who  has  ever  imagined  himself  to  have  fathomed 
its  vast  depths,  or  trodden  upon  the  topmost  elevations  of  its  golden 
mountains  of  thought,  or  felt  the  full  force  of  its  grand  motives,  or 
dreamed  of  having  taken  into  his  mental  comprehension  all  of  its 
ineffable  and  divine  revealings  ! 

II.  Ill  the  accomplishment  of  this  work,  "  the  Truth  "  needs  help. 

This  is  the  second  branch  of  our  doctrinal  statement.  In  our 
text,  the  early  Christians  were  urged  to  take  a  course,  indicated  by 
the  context,  in  order  that  they  might  be  "fellow-helpers  to  the 
truth."  This  exhortation  is  obviously  based  upon  the  idea  that  it 
needs  help,  and  a  brief  glance  at  its  nature  will  reveal  the  correctness 
of  that  idea.  What  is  truth  ?  It  is  not  a  personal  existence,  as  an 
angel  or  man  is.  It  is  not  of  itself  endowed  with  powers  of  locomo- 
tion. It  is  spiritual  reality,  which  in  itself  considered  has  no  power 
to  bring  itself  in  contact  with  the  human  mind.  Nay,  it  may  justly 
be  compared  to  gold,  deeply  imbedded  in  the  earth,  which,  however 
valuable,  has  no  power  to  force  its  way  through  the  superincumbent 


FELLOW-HELPERS  OF  THE  TRUTH.  231 

mass,  and  go,  self-coined,  self-stamped,  into  circulation.  It  needs  a 
foreign  power  brought  to  bear  upon  it  to  bring  it  forth ;  it  needs  the 
smelting  process,  the  furnace  blaze,  and  the  mint  stamp,  to  place  it 
in  conditions  to  be  useful ;  and  then  it  needs  helpers  to  circulate  it, 
in  order  that  it  may  accomplish  the  purpose  to  which  it  is  so  admira- 
bly adapted.  So  is  it  in  regard  to  divine  truth.  It  may  indeed  be 
said  that  God  might  have  emblazoned  that  truth  on  the  sky,  or 
stamped  it  upon  the  leaves  of  the  forest,  or  by  miraculous  act  have 
revealed  it  to  human  minds  as  soon  as  they  reached  the.  point  of 
development  where  it  could  be  received.  But  He  has  not  done  so. 
He  has  devised  and  perfected  a  divine  system  of  truth,  and  then,  in 
infinite  wisdom,  placed  it  in  a  position  where  it  is  subject  to  the 
same  laws  that  govern  the  development  and  dissemination  of  other 
truths.  This  is  the  basis  of  Paul's  grand  argument  in  his  epistle  to 
the  Romans,  in  which  he  says:  ''Faith  cometh.by  hearing,  and 
hearing  by  the  Word  of  God.  How,  then,  shall  they  believe  on 
Him  of  whom  they  have  not  heard  ?  How  can  they  hear  without  a 
preacher  ?  And  how  can  they  preach  except  they  be  sent  ?  "  Here 
it  is  distinctly  taught  that  Gospel  truth  cannot  float  on  the  wind,  or 
sail  on  the  waves,  or  travel  on  the  land,  in  order  to  reach  those 
within  whom  it  has  its  mighty  work  to  accomplish,  and  that  there- 
fore, because  of  its  own  nature,  it  needs  help.  So  also  the  fact,  that 
God  has  foreordained  multitudinous  agencies  and  instrumentalities 
to  this  end,  proves  the  reality  of  this  necessity.  And  the  further 
fact,  that  on  almost  every  page  of  the  Bible  we  are  exhorted  to  this 
work,  and  by  the  conscious  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit  we  are  im- 
pelled to  it,  completes  the  demonstration  of  that  necessity. 

III.    We  man  ^^^P  ^^• 

This  is  the  third  point  of  our  doctrine.  Before  entering  upon  its 
discussion,  I  feel  that  I  should  be  recreant  to  my  duty  if  I  did  not 
here  pause,  and  ask  you  to  pause  with  me,  in  order  that  we  may  do 
reverence  to  a  fundamental  article  of  our  faith.  I  refer  to  tlie  rela- 
tions, of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  this  truth.  He  is  its  great  efiicient  helper. 
He  giveth  it  "  the  increase."  His  hand  grasps  it  as  His  own  two- 
edged  sword.  He  is  the  "  Spirit  of  Truth,"  the  infallible  guide  "  into 
all  truth."  Ah,  if  every  angel  in  heaven  and  every  man  on  earth 
were  "  helpers  to  the  truth,"  should  the  Holy  Spirit  withhold  His 
omnific  aid,  it  couM  never  accomplish  its  work,  for  God  or  man. 
Nay,  it  would  utterly  and  hopelessly  fail.     We  would  ever  have 


232  FELLOW-HELPERS   OF  THE  TRUTH. 

sounding  in  our  ears,  and  influencing  all  our  efforts,  the  sublime 
declaration,  "  Not  by  might,  nor  by  power,  but  by  My  Spirit,  saith 
the  Lord." 

But  while  this  doctrine  is  firmly  believed,  while  it  is  depended 
upon  as  the  basis  of  success,  while  we  reverently  bow  our  souls  before 
it  and  glory  in  it,  assuredly  it  becomes  us  to  listen  obediently  to  the 
exhortation  of  that  adorable  Spirit,  as  given  in  this  inspired  text, 
wherein  we  are  urged  to  be  "  fellow-helpers  to  the  truth."    Assuredly 
it  becomes  us  to  listen  obediently  to  the  command  of  our  Lord,  who 
saith,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  Grospel  to  every 
creature."     "  Freely  ye  have  received,  freely  give."     As  if  He  had 
said,  "  I  have  not  given  My  Gospel  feet  to  walk  or  wings  to  fly ;  I 
have  not  bidden  careering  winds  '  bear  it  from  Greenland's  icy  moun- 
tains to  India's  coral  strand ; '  I  have  not  commissioned  angels  to 
help  it  through  the  earth  on  its  sublime  mission,  but  I  have  com- 
mitted it  to  you,  my  chosen,  redeemed,  beloved  people,  co-heirs,  co- 
laborers  with  Me ;  upon  you  I  have  conferred  this  honor  and  duty. 
Go  ye  therefore  into  all  the  world ;  lo,  I  am  with  you  always." 
Is  it  asked,  how  may  we  discharge  this  duty  ?     I  answer — 
1.    We  heiji  the  truth  when,  having  received  it  ourselves,  loe  obey  it 
and  exemplifi/  it  in  our  lives.     Constituted  and  depraved  as  men  are, 
my  brethren,  they  will  not  believe  in  the  great  spiritualities  of  oui* 
religion,  unless  they  can  palpably  see  practical  exemplifications  of 
them.     Hence  it  is  that,  however  eloquently  we  may  talk  or  preach 
of  the  glory  or  blessedness  of  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,"  the  world 
demands  practical  demonstrations  of  it.    Therefore  it  is,  that  although 
we  profess  the  truth,  if  we  do  not  live  it,  if  there  be  not  practical  ap- 
plications of  it  in  our  lives,  we  hinder  instead  of  helping  it.     We 
prejudice  minds  against  it,  instead   of  influencing  them  favorably 
towards  it.     We  block  up  its  way,  instead  of  removing  obstacles. 
In  fact,  we  are  really  against  it,  while  professing  to  be  for  it.     We 
thus  "  hold  the  truth  in  unrighteousness."     Hence,  it  is  far  better 
to  take  a  Papist  by  the  hand,  speak  kindly  to  him,  and  give  him  a 
Bible,  than  to  ridicule  the  Pope  or  any  of  his  bishops.      It  is  far 
better  to  lift  a  drunkard  out  of  the  gutter,  take  him  home,  and  help 
him  to  become  a  man  again,  than  merely  to  deliver  eloquent  addresses 
upon  temperance  platforms.     It  is  far  better  for  the  cause  of  benev- 
olent truth  to  actually  feed  the  hungry,  clothe  the  naked,  and  admin- 
ister to  the  pressing  necessities  of  the  destitute,  than  to  be  forever 


FELLOW-HELPERS  OF  THE  TRUTH.         233 

prating  about  charity,  and  never  giving  anything.  It  is  far  better 
to  develop  the  beauty  and  loveliness  of  our  religion,  the  blessedness 
resulting  from  obedience  to  its  precepts,  in  our  personal  characters 
and  daily  lives,  than  to  argue  and  debate  about  them.  Oh,  brethren, 
when  our  spirit,  our  words,  and  lives,  are  in  anjcordance  with  the 
holy  Gospel  we  profess,  then  are  we  personally  living,  powerful, 
influential  exemplifications  of  it.  Then  are  we,  emphatically, 
"  helpers  to  the  truth."  And  this  is  in  harmony  with  other  facts. 
Let  a  farmer  who  would  help  agricultural  truth  neglect  to  apply  its 
principles  to  his  own  farm,  and  all  he  may  say  will  avail  nothing ; 
but  let  him  industriously  apply  those  principles  to  his  own  land,  and 
realize  their  results  in  the  superior  beauty  of  his  place,  in  greatly- 
enlarged  harvests,  and  in  the  increased  value  of*  his  estate,  then  his 
neighbors  will  begin  to  seek  after  that  which  has  thus  benefited  him. 
Fulton  helped  mechanical  truth,  not  so  much  by  propounding  a 
theory,  as  by  actually  building  a  steamboat.  Thus  it  is  that  he  who 
lives  God's  truth  eflEiciently  helps  it.  Be  he  whosoever  he  may,  be 
his  circumstances  whatsoever  they  may,  be  he  wheresoever  he  may, 
he  is  an  "  epistle  known  and  read  of  all  men ; "  he  is  a  living  dem- 
onstration of  the  divinity  of  Christianity.  And,  oh,  if  all  of  us  who 
profess  it  thus  helped  it,  then  would  it  rapidly  accomplish  its  glorious 
work  in  this  world ;  then  would  no  combination  of  its  foes  be  able  to 
resist  its  progress,  any  more  effectually  than,  could  a  party  of  Swiss 
boys  arrest,  by  holding  out  their  little  hands,  the  overwhelming  ava- 
lanche, as  it  comes  crashing,  thundering  down  from  the  regions  of 
eternal  snow. 

2.  We  help  the  truth  7ohen  toe  do  what  toe  can  for  its  establishment 
at  home  and  dissemination  abroad. 

This  is  done,  first  of  all,  by  those  who  organi2e  and  sustain  Chris- 
tian churches,  each  of  which  is  "a  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth;" 
who  in  some  destitute  portion  of  the  country,  or  a  village,  or  a  city, 
organize  divine  models  of  republicanism  on  the  old  Jerusalem  plat- 
form, and,  unfurling  the  banner  of  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  keep  it 
up  through  storm  and  sunshine,  keep  it  up  through  discouragements 
and  encouragements,  keep  it  up  in  adversity  and  prosperity,  and 
never  relax  their  hold  upon  the  standard  until  it  is  loosened  by 
death. 

This  is  done  by  those  who  sustain  a  ministry,  called  of  God  to 
preach  "  the  truth."     Such  is  the  definite  mission  of  every  minister 


234  FELLOW-HELPERS   OF  THE   TRUTH. 

of  the  Gospel.  He  has  authority  for  preaching  nothing  else.  His 
business  is  to  "  rightly  divide  the  word  of  truth/'  and  give  to  each 
a  portion  in  due  season.  He  is  by  profession  a  herald  of  the  truth, 
who  has  sworn  before  the  altar  to  believe  it,  to  love  it,  to  live  it,  to 
proclaim  it,  to  help  it,  so  help  him  God ! 

This  is  done  by  those  who  erect  sanctuaries,  where  these  organized 
churches  may  worship,  and  this  ministry  may  statedly  and  publicly 
''hold  forth  the  Word  of  life."  Every  such  sanctuary  is  of  itself 
monumental  evidence  for  "  the  truth " — evidence  that  where  it  is 
located  there  are  believers,  who  have  loved  it  so  well  as  to  give  time, 
money,  and  toil,  to  erect  a  house,  from  whose  pulpit  elevation  it  may 
throw  its  pure  light  upon  humanity  around — a  house  to  stand  for 
God  when  they  shall  have  fallen  in  death — a  house  where  their 
children  may  come  and  remember  the  God  of  their  fathers — a  house 
where  the  poor  may  come  and  hear  the  riches  of  grace  treasured  up 
in  Christ  Jesus,  the  afflicted  may  come  and  find  consolation,  the 
tempted  and  tried  may  come  and  gather  up  strength  for  the  conflict, 
the  despairing  may  come  and  receive  comfort  and  hope,  the  ignorant 
may  come  and  receive  instruction,  the  aged  may  come  and  have  their 
spiritual  youth  renewed — a  house  to  be  made  glorious  evermore  as 
the  earthly  tabernacle  of  Jehovah  in  Covenant. 

This  is  done  by  efficiently  aiding  those  organizations,  whose  prime 
object  is  to  disseminate  the  truth.  Such,  for  instance,  as  Sabbath 
Schools,  Bible  Societies,  Tract  Societies,  Home  and  Foreign  Mission 
Societies — for  all  these  are  but  different  methods  of  performing  the 
same  work — disseminating  a  knowledge  of  saving  truth  through  the 
world.  And  such,  emphatically,  is  the  last  and  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  and  blessed  developments  of  active  Christianity — that  which 
bears  the  name  of  "  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association."  Oh,  it 
is  a  precious  helper  to  the  truth  !  It  gloriously  exemplifies  the  es- 
sential unity  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Gospel,  in  the  bonds  of  peace.  It 
makes  applications  of  the  truth  in  directions  which  had  previously 
been  neglected ;  and  because  of  its  increasing  potentiality  for  good, 
its  benign  influence  upon  both  the  church  and  the  w6rld,  the  palpa- 
ble approbation  of  Heaven  rests  upon  it,  and  the  sympathies  of 
Christendom  are  gathering  around  it.  Oh,  it  is  a  sublime  thought, 
that  all  these  multiplex  instrumentalities,  under  the  divine  guidance, 
are  working  out  one  grand  purpose,  one  sublime  consummation,  and 
that  is  the  universal  and  permanent  triumph  of  light  over  darkness. 


PELLOW-HELPERS   OF   THE   TRUTH,  235 

of  love  over  hatred,  of  holiness  over  sin,  of  eternal  truth  over  every 
form  and  development  of  error.  Therefore  it  is  that  every  one  who 
aids  these  according  to  his  ability  is  in  fact,  and  is  recognised,  both 
on  earth  and  in  heaven,  as  an  efficient  helper  to  the  truth. 

IV.    We  ought  to  he  fclloic-hclpcrs  to  the  Truth. 

Having  seen  the  work  which  the  truth  has  to  accomplish ;  that  it 
needs  help ;  and  having  seen  how  we  may  help  it,  the  last  point  in 
our  doctrinal  proposition  is,  that  we  ought  to  be  its  helpers.  And 
this  will  appear  if  we  consider — 

1.  The  ncdure  of  the  icorh.  In  it  are  wrapped  up  the  interests  of 
the  world.  We  hear  much  in  our  day  about  the  progression  of  our 
race,  as  if  that  fact  alone  insured  its  well-being.  But  we  mu^t 
remember  that  there  is  a  progress  downward  as  well  as  upward,  a 
progress  of  vice  as  well  as  of  virtue,  of  darkness  as  well  as  of  light, 
of  error  as  well  as  of  truth;  and  we  should  never'  forget  that  all 
progress  is  positively  hurtful,  which  has  not  its  basis  in  Bible  truth. 

.All  else  "leads  but  to  bewilder,  and  dazzles  to  blind;"  all  else  is  a 
mere  "  ignis  fatuus,"  beguiling  the  unwary,  leading  them  from  right 
paths  to  wander  hither  and  thither,  and  finally  leave  them  exhausted 
and  ruined.  All  else  is  temporary  and  transient,  but  truth  is  stable; 
truth  is  firm  and  abiding;  truth  is  enlightening  and  sanctifying; 
truth  is  strengthening  and  elevating.  It  therefore  promotes  perma- 
nent well-being.  It  elevates,  equalizes,  and  blesses  all.  It  honors 
God.  It  places  on  the  glorious  brow  of  Jesus  the  crown  of  all  the 
earth.  Do  you  desire  such  results  realized  in  this  world  ?  Then  you 
ought  to  help  the  truth. 

2.  Consider  the  debt  of  graiitude  ice  oive  it.  What  has  it  done  for 
us  ?  Nay,  I  change  the  form  of  that  question,  and  ask.  What  has 
it  not  done  for  us  ?  Ah !  all  that  we  are  personally,  as  intellectual 
and  moral  beings ;  all  that  we  are  socially,  politically,  and  ecclesiasti- 
cally ;  all  of  our  hopes  that  radiate  the  future ;  all  that  has  made  us 
different  from  the  lowest,  meanest,  and  most  degraded  of  earth — for 
all  this  we  are  indebted  to  the  truth,  as  it  is  developed  in  the  divine 
system  of  Christianity.  Therefore  I  affirm,  that  mere  gratitude  dic- 
tates that  each  of  us  ought  to  be  its  active,  liberal,  zealous  helpers. 

3.  Consider  the  present  posit iori  of  Bible  truth.  Perhaps  at  no 
former  period  have  its  enemies  been  more  numerous  or  malignant 
than  at  present.  Formalism  on  the  one  hand,  and  infidelity  on 
the  other,  are  the  extremes  of  a  long  line  of  opposition  to  its  simple, 


236  FELLOW-HELPERS   OF   THE   TRUTH. 

unadulterated,  sinner-humbling,  and  Grod-exalting  doctrines.  Our 
holy  Bible — hoary  with  an  antiquity  of  which  no  other  book  can 
boast,  environed  and  impregnated  with  divinity,  radiant  with  the 
constellated  glory  of  the  entire  system  of  moral  and  religious  truth — 
is  made  the  grand  point  of  attack.  Now  it  is  assailed  under  one 
form,  and  then  in  another;  now  the  opposition  is  led  on  by  what 
seems  to  be  an  angel  of  light,  professing  great  sympathy  for  its  moral 
teachings,  adopting  its  venerated  modes  of  expression,  and  yet  en- 
deavoring to  undermine  its  claims  to  inspiration,  and  thus  destroy  it; 
and  anon  the  attack  is  made  by  open,  avowed,  impersonated  unbe- 
lief. The  powers  of  darkness  do  congregate,  and  the  hosts  of  hell 
do  agree,  that  this  blessed  volume,  which  has  withstood  the  storms  of 
eighteen  centuries,  shall  be  shoru  of  its  glory,  and  regarded  as  an 
effete  thing — a  relic  of  the  past,  unneeded  by  the  prodigious  wisdom 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  Yea,  in  these  days,  the  Herods  and 
Pilates  of  error  easily  become  friends.  Romanism  and  Pusey'ism 
speak  cooingly  to  each  other ;  German  Atheism,  imported  to  Boston, 
and  thence  distributed  over  the  land,  is  croaking, ''  No  God !  no  God ! " 
while  transcendental  Pantheism,  its  first-born  child,  is  screeching, 
"Everything  is  God,  and  God  is  everything;"  Rationalism  is  offering 
to  inspire  us,  as  truly  as  prophets  and  apostles  were  inspired,  while 
Spiritism  is  proposing  to  dispense  with  inspiration  entirely,  and  sub- 
stitute in  its  place  what  it  calls  fresh  communications  from  the  spirit 
world. 

These  exigencies,  my  brethren,  demand  from  us,  if  indeed  we  are 
its  friends,  that  we  stand  firmly  by,  and  courageously  defend  Bible 
truth.     They  call  upon  us,  with  new  zeal,  to  love  it,  to  profess  it,  to 
live  it,  to  preach  it,  to  help  it  in  every  possible  way;  and  swear  by  our 
God,  that  let  the  opposition  come  from  what  quarter  soever  it  may — 
let  it  come  in  what  form  soever  it  may — let  it  come  as  the  loifd-voiced 
tempest  or  thundering  hurricane — we  will  never  give  it  up — nay,  we 
will  brace  ourselves  against  the  tomb-stones  of  our  fathers,  and  with 
one  arm  around  the  rugged  Cross,  and  the  other  grasping  the  sword 
of  the  Spirit,  we  will  do  battle  for  it  until  our  warfare  is  accomplished. 
And  rest  assured  that  while  thus  helping  the  truth,  we  shall  hear 
voices  of  cheer  sounding  in  our  ears  above  the  din  of  conflict  saying, 
"  Go  on,  pursue,  assert  the  sacred  cause, 
Stand  forth  je  proxies  of  all-ruling  Providence, 
Saints  shall  assist  you  with  prevailing  prayers, 
And  warring  angels  combat  at  your  side." 


FELLOW-HELPERS    OF   THE   TRUTH.  237 

4.  Consider  the  idea  involved  in  our  being  urged  to  be  fdlow- 
hdpers  to  the  tnitli.  From  this  you  perceive  that  wc  arc  not  called 
upon  to  work  alone,  make  sacrifices  alone,  aid  the  truth  alone,  but 
merely  to  be  /e^foiu-helpers.  Ah,  what  a  mighty  array  have  already 
been  engaged  in  this  service !  Lofty  angels  and  hoary  patriarchs ; 
holy  apostles,  flaming  martyrs,  and  eloquent  preachers;  Epaphroditus 
the  messenger,  and  Gains  the  host;  Paul  the  aged,  and  Timothy  the 
youth;  Eunice  his  mother,  and  Lois  his  grandmother — all  these,  and 
unnumbered  hosts  of  others,  have  been  helpers.  And  time  would 
fail  me  to  tell  you  of  the  witnesses  God  has  raised  up  in  every  age, 
who  have  gloried  in  spending  and  being  spent  in  this  work.  And 
to-day  God  hath  a  glorious  host  of  truth-helpers  in  this  world,  de- 
praved as  it  is.  He  has  pious  fathers  and  mothers,  who  belong  to 
past  generations,  encouraging  and  blessing  us  with  their  examples, 
counsels,  and  prayers.  He  has  hundreds  of  thousands  of  children 
and  teachers  in  Sabbath  schools,  some  of  whom  are  yet  to  shake  the 
world.  He  has  numerous  bands  of  Christian  young  men,  gathered 
in  consecrated  associations,  who  have  laid  their  all  upon  His  altar. 
He  has  devoted  ministers,  pious  deacons,  and  a  "  peculiar  people," 
zealous  of  good  works,  scattered  through  all  denominations.  He  has 
Christian  merchants  behind  their  counters,  and  Christian  mechanics 
in  their  shops,  and  Christian  farmers  on  their  fields,  and  Christian 
physicians  and  lawyers — all  of  whom  in  their  several  spheres  are 
fellow-laborers.  And  besides  these,  there  are  dying  saints,  sending 
back  their  testimony  from  the  gates  of  death ;  and  saints  in  heaven 
whose  works  are  following  them,  and  ministering  spirits  on  viewless 
wings,  and  clouds  of  prayer  arising  from  millions  of  heart-altars ;  and 
then  there  is  the  vast  providential  government  of  God,  and  the  en- 
tire material  universe,  both  of  which  are  subordinated  to  His  purposes 
of  grace — and  all  these  are  helpers.  And  grander  than  all  this,  each 
of  the  persons  of  the  adorable  Trinity,  God  the  Father,  God  the  Son, 
and  God  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  an  eflEicient  helper.  Oh,  what  a  host ! 
what  a  transcendently  magnificent  array !  What  heart  does  not  cry 
out,  in  view  of  them,  ''  Let  me,  poor,  weak,  unworthy  though  I  am, 
let  me  have  the  high  privilege  of  being  a  fellow-helper  with  such 
associates,  in  such  a  cause  !  " 

5.  Consider,  lastly,  that  the  ultimate  tnumph  of  this  truth  is  cer 
tain,  and  that  all  who  help  it  shall  share  in  that  triumph.  It  may 
be,  it  will  be  long  delayed.     God  takes  time  to  consummate  His 


238  FELLOW-HELPERS    OF    THE   TRUTH. 

work.  "  The  ages  to  come  "  are  His,  as  truly  as  the  ages  past.  With 
Him,  one  day  is  as  a  thousand  years,  and  a  thousand  years  as  one  day. 
Error  may  conquer  in  a  single  battle ;  it  often  does ;  but  it  shall  be 
conquered  in  the  war.  John  Milton  never  uttered  a  nobler  senti- 
ment than  when  he  said,  "  Though  all  the  winds  of  doctrine  were  let 
loose  upon  the  earth,  so  truth  be  in  the  field,  we  do  injuriously  to 
misdoubt  her  strength.  Let  her  grapple  with  falsehood.  Whoever 
knew  truth  put  to  the  worse  in  a  free  and  open  encounter  ?  " 

"  Truth  crushed  to  earth  shall  rise  again,  ' 
The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers  ;  ■ 

While  error,  wounded,  writhes  in  pain, 
And  dies  amid  her  worshippers." 

But  this  triumph  is  guarantied  by  an  omnipotent  Jehovah ;  it  is 
promised  in  the  covenant  of  redemption ;  it  is  recorded  on  the 
page  of  prophecy ;  it  was  beheld  from  mounts  of  vision  by  ancient 
prophets — and  so  glorious  was  the  view,  that  they  fell  down  like 
dead  men  before  its  overwhelming  magnificence.  It  is  presaged  to 
the  believing  heart  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  so  clearly  that  oftentimes, 
when  clouds  and  darkness  are  around  Zion,  when  her  enemies  shout 
the  p83an  of  victory,  and  the  ranks  of  the  faithful  seem  to  falter, 
even  then  Faith  lifts  up  her  voice  like  a  trumpet,  and  sings — 

"  Thy  saints,  in  all  this  glorious  war, 
Shall  conquer,  though  they  die." 

Brethren,  we  shall  die ;  the  places  that  know  us  now  shall  know 
us  no  more.  But  though  God  buries  His  workmen.  He  will  carry 
on  His  work.  The  thorn-scarred  brow  of  our  Redeemer  shall  wear 
earth's  many  crowns.  His  nail-scarred  hands  shall  sway  the  sceptre 
of  this  world.  This  earth,  which  was  the  scene  of  His  humiliation 
and  ignominious  death,  shall  be  the  theatre  of  His  glory.  Yea,  this 
sin-cursed  world,  wet  with  human  tears,  dripping  with  human  blood, 
shall  again  be  clad  in  more  than  primeval  beauty  during  millennial 
years,  and,  as  it  rolls  in  its  orbit,  like  a  golden  censer,  shall  send  up 
to  the  God  of  truth  the  incense  of  universal  praise,  He  said  that 
the  gates  of  hell  should  not  prevail  against  His  church ;  and  when 
Zion,  triumphant — decked  like  a  bride  waiting  for  her  beloved— is 
about  to  ascend  to  her  eternal  home,  as  she  looks  back  upon  the 
theatre  of  her  conflicts,  shall  shout,  with  exultant  joy,  ''  The  gates  of 
hell  have  not  prevailed." 

Brethren,  when  a  harvest  is  gathered  after  much  toil,  who  sings 


FELLOW-HELPERS   OF  THE   TRUTH.  239 

most  sweetly  "  the  harvest  home  ?  "  Those  who  helped  in  preparing 
the  soil  and  in  sowing  the  seed.  When  the  independence  of  our 
country  was  achieved,  when  the  fires  of  Freedom  blazed  on  our  iiill- 
tops,  when  the  eagle  of  victory  perched  upon  our  banner  of  stars, 
who  rejoiced  the  most,  who  shared  the  largest  in  that  triumph  ?  See 
those  aged  veterans,  a  few  of  whom  still  linger  among  us ;  tell  one 
of  them  to  look  over  our  vast  Republic;  tell  him  of  its  amazing 
progress  and  resplendent  prospects — and  then  tell  him  that,  under 
God,  all  this  is  traceable  to  the  independence  achieved  by  our  fore- 
fathers, and  you  shall  see  that  bent  form  straighten  up,  that  dull  eye 
flash,  that  feeble  voice  grow  strong,  as  he  exclaims,  "  I  helped  in 
that  struggle;  I  gave  time,  toil,  and  blood,  for  my  country."  And 
you  shall  feel  that  he  has  a  right  to  exult  as  no  other  may.  He 
shared  the  trials — he  has  a  right  to  share  the  triumph.  So,  beloved 
brethren,  it  is  graciously  given  unto  us,  not  only  to  believe,  but  to 
suffer  for  Christ's  sake — to  have  fellowship  in  suffering,  fellowship 
in  sacrifice,  fellowship  in  toil,  and  then  final  fellowship  in  the  mag- 
nificent glories  of  the  ultimate  triumph  of  truth — personal  participa- 
tion in  the  splendors  of  the  coronation-day  of  our  Lord. 


THE  EVIL  AFFECTTN-a  THE  UNIVERSE. 


Tb«*  iirst  of  these. passages  liaa  another  reading  to  thin  effect: 
Shall  there  be  evil  ^"  ^  ' ' ^ ^  and  the  Lord  not  do  «■  .rn r,,,rT, .,t, v "  This 
onstnietion.  taken  yotntl'vn  fraxn  <1.-:  -y  implies 


8t!r 


bie  with  the  responsibility  of  His  rational  creatures  ? 

These  questions  bring  us  to  consider  one  of  thp  profoundest  sub- 
jects that  has  ever  engaged  human  attention — that  of  the  existence, 
c  and  authorship  of  evil — the  '.rJations  of  mni,  to  it— and  the 
' '-d  to  it. 

little  to  say  that,  how.  ;  ny  have  originated. 

)Oth  the  diviiu'  .  an  agencies  are  m- 

..;i  it.     Of  thii-  'omn  troth,  the 

i  18  fall  of  the  Ji^  id  admonitory 

cxiii  •  deluge  and  i  crucifixion  of 


242  THE   EVIL  AFFECTING  THE   UNIVERSE. 

Jesus  Christ  have  each,  in  their  way,  proclaimed  the  mighty  hut 
melancholy  fact.  The  great  centres  of  human  population  in  every 
age  have  become  the  monuments  of  its  reality.  And  everywhere  and 
at  all  times  the  conflicts  and  disasters  of  the  human  race  have  only 
served  to  illustrate  and  impress  the  fearful  fact  of  existing  evil,  and 
to  confirm  and  manifest  the  equal  truth,  that  man  errs  and  suffers, 
while  at  the  same  time  God  is  also  displaying,  in  this  identical  series 
of  events,  the  dispositions  of  His  infinite  mind. 

In  entering  therefore,  upon  a  somewhat  closer  examination  of 
this  subject,  we  shall  dwell  at  present  on  the  three  following  topics 
of  discussion : 

I.  The  nature  of  evil. 

II.  How  creatures  are  connected  with  it. 

III.  How  God  is  connected  with  it. 

I.  First  then,  as  to  the  nature  of  evil,  we  observe  that,  so  far  as 
we  can  know  anything  concerning  it,  the  idea  of  evil  is  presented  to. 
our  apprehension  in  these  three  aspects : 

1.  Moral  evil,  or  sin. 

2.  Physical  evil,  or  suffering. 

3.  Alternative  evil,  or  that  evil  which  might  have  resulted  from 
the  choice  of  any  other  than  the  present  system  of  the  universe. 

The  conceptions  of  damage,  hurt,  injury,  loss,  mischief,  pain,  vio- 
lence, and  wrong,  some  or  all  of  them  underlie  and  form  the  basis  or 
real  groundwork  of  each  of  these  three  aspects  of  evil.  We  are 
somewhat  at  a  loss  how  further  or  more  clearly  to  express  even  our 
own  sense  of  what  this  evil  truly  is.  But  if  possible  to  make  it  plain 
in  our  meaning,  we  may  remark,  there  is  a  divine  will,  there  is  a 
constituted  order  of  nature,  and  there  is  an  eternal  and  immutable 
distinction  between  right  and '  wrong.  Now  to  a  sentient,  spontane- 
ous, intelligent,  moral,  spiritual,  and  accountable  being  constituted, 
conditioned,  and  developed,  in  just  accordance  with  this  divine  will, 
this  order  of  nature,  and  this  immutable  distinction  between  right 
and  wrong — to  such  a  being,  that  which  is  absolutely  not  to  be  de- 
sired is  evil,  that  which  is  to  be  desired  is  ffood.  We  know  of  no 
bfetter  way  of  defining  evil  in  the  abstract,  or  of  distinguishing  it 
from  good.  And  consequently,  still  more  certainly,  that  must  be 
evil  at  which  God,  in  the  divine  sympathies  and  sensibiilities  of  His 
infinite  nature,  reluctates. 

Then,  as  to  the  aspect  of  moral  evil  or  sin,  we  see  at  once  that  it  is 


THE   EVIL   AFFECTING  THE   UNIVERSE.  243 

and  can  be  nothing  more  nor  less  tlian  the  want  of  conformity  to,  or 
the  positive  transgression  of  a  moral  law ;  and  of  course  that  it  is 
and  can  be  produced  only  by  the  proper  agent  or  subject  of  such  a 
law )  and  of  course  only  by  a  being  who  must  be,  in  his  own  nature, 
a  free,  intelligent,  moral,  and  responsible  creature.     This  being  so, 
it  is  indispensable  to  a  comprehension  of  the  subject  that  we  should 
have  a  clear  conception  of  the  possibilities  and  beginnings  of  moral 
evil,  and  of  the  only  conditions  of  its  origin  and  rise.     You  see 
plainly  what  it  is — a  violation  of  moral  law — a  departure  from  that 
spiritual  order  and  consistency  of  things,  which  God  has  established 
in  the  constitution  and  administration  of  the  existing  universe.    You 
see  as  plainly  that  it  can  only  arise  in  the  nature  and  out  of  the  st^ite 
or  action  of  a  free  moral  being,  subject  to  moral  law.     And  it  is 
equally  conclusive,  that  it  must  arise  in  the  nature  or  from  the  mode 
of  such  a  being,  only  upon  those  occasions  which  aYe  of  the  essence 
of  temptation,  because  the  principles  of  creature  mind  and  the  proofs 
of  our  experience  are  such,  that  this  moral  evil  cannot  exist  except 
as  it  is  accompanied  by  a  consciousness  of  the  proximate  causes  which 
produced  it.     These  proximate  causes  are  the  occasions  of  tempta- 
tion, which  temptation,  as  witnessed  by  the  consciousness  of  the 
creature,  may  be  present  to  the  mind  either  from  within  or  from 
without,  and  must  therefore  be,  in  agreement  with  the  circumstances, 
either  clothed  with  or  divested  of  the  quality  of  voluntariness.    And 
thus  again,  temptation  itself  must  be  distinguished  as  of  two  kinds, 
when  considered  in  reference  to  the  subjects  which  hold  it  forth,  or 
the  objects  out  of  which  it  springs.     Temptation  is  voluntary  or  in- 
voluntary, according  to  the  method  of  its  presentation ;  but  tempta- 
tion is  not  in  itself  properly  an  evil,  when  separated  from  the  ele- 
ment of  voluntariness.     It  may  be  well  to  illustrate  this  distinction. 
When  Satan  came  to  tempt  the  Redeemer,  it  was  on  the  part  of  the 
fallen  angel  a  temptation  voluntarily  put  forth.     Hence  we  call  it  a 
voluntary  temptation,  not  with  reference  to  Christ,  but  only  with 
reference  to  his  adversary.     But  when  Achan  was  tempted  at  the 
sight  of  the  wedge  of  gold,  that  temptation,  arising  from  an  involun- 
tary object,  may  be  termed  an  mvoluntary  temptation.     It  was  con- 
tingent on  the  circumstances,  and  in  itself  had  no  moral  quality. 
Thus  we  see  the  difference  between  the.se  two  classes  of  temptations, 
which  together  embrace  all  the  forms  of  temptation  of  which  it  is 
possible  for  us  to  conceive. 


244  THE   EVIL  AFFECTING   THE   UNIVERSE. 

Yet,  whether  the  temptation  be  voluntary  or  involuntary,  as  now 
explained,  the  sin  or  act  of  demerit  does  not  lie  in  the  fact  of  being 
tempted,  but  only  in  essentially  yielding  to  such  temptation.  Moral 
evil  has  not  properly  begun  prior  to  the  actual  submission  of  the 
creature  to  the  dominion  of  the  temptation.  Temptation,  as  we  have 
seen  in  the  instance  of  our  Saviour,  may  arise  upon  a  being  purely 
innocent,  and  if  repelled,  makes  the  innocence  of  the  person  tempted 
even  more  conspicuous  by  virtue  of  the  resistance. 

These  then  are  the  conditions  of  moral  evil — a  juoral  law — a 
moral  being  subject  to  that  law — temptations  to  a  violation  of  the  law, 
such  temptations  being  either  voluntary  or  involuntary,  and  arising 
either  from  within  or  without  the  moral  being— and  finally,  an  es- 
sential submission  of  the  moral  being,  upon  the  occasion  of  the 
temptation,  to  that  violation  of  the  law  in  which  the  sin  or  moral  evil 
essentially  consists.  This  is  all  it  seems  possible  for  us  at  present  to 
know  of  the  rise  and  nature  of  this  kind  of  evil.  It  remains  only  to 
add,  on  this  point  of  our  examination,  that  philosophically  consid- 
ered, the  first  temptation  must  have  been  involuntary^  since  any  other 
supposition  would  necessitate  an  act  of  sin  prior  to  that  which  must 
have  been  the  first  act,  which  of  course  is  a  self-contradiction. 

,  The  occurrence  of  moral  evil  lays  the  foundation  for  the  further 
and  consequent  existence  of  physical  evil  or  sufi'ering,  embraced  in 
the  distinct  forms  of  natural  sequence,  positive  curse  and  the  strict 
penalty  of  violated  law.  Thus  we  have,  in  this  view,  all  that  consti- 
tutes the  pain  and  disorder  of  the  universe,  as  exhibited  under  the 
Creator's  administration,  or  attested  in  the  history  of  His  creatures. 
So  the  natural  sequence  of  the  violation  of  moral  law,  operates  mental 
alienation  from  the  law  and  from  its  Author,  and  that  corruption  of 
nature  which  constitutes  the  spiritual  death  of  the  sinner.  This  oc- 
casions a  liability  to  the  infraction  of  natural  laws,  and  to  its  corres- 
ponding damage  or  suflFering.  The  positive  curse  is  a  superadded 
expression  of  the  divine  displeasure  against  sin.  In  the  case  of 
human  beings,  it  comprises  natural  weakness,  toil,  weariness,  decay 
and  death,  and  may  be  regarded  as  a  manifestation  of  the  divine  will, 
giving  direction  providentially  to  the  certain  results  of  moral  evil,  as 
those  results  are  wrought  out  in  the  subordinate,  departments  of  the 
material  creation.  The  sirict  penalty  of  violated  moral  law  is  that 
which  may  be  termed  the  remediless  and  everlasting  evil  of  the 
divine  wrath,  as  inflicted  on  the  incorrigible  sinner  in  a  future  pun- 


THE   EVIL   AFFECTING   THE   UNIVERSE.  245 

ishment  and  an  endless  hell.  No  part  of  this  physical  evil  could 
have  found  introduction  into  the  existing  universe,  had  there  been 
no  sin. 

The  third  kind  of  evil — which  we  have  designated  alternative  evil, 
from  the  simple  circumstance,  that  in  the  possibility  of  our  concep- 
tions, we  may  suppose  it  to  have  existed,  had  any  other  system  of  the 
universe  been  adopted  essentially  different  from  the  present — embraces 
solely  our  ideas  of  what  would  or  might  have  been  either  a  defect  or 
a  redundancy  in  any  such  supposable  economy.  Imagine  for  a  mo- 
ment, that  any  other  system  had  been  chosen ;  we  can  easily  con- 
ceive that  there  might  have  been  left  out  of  it  the  element  of  the 
creature's  free  agency.  This  must  have  been  a  defect,  and  as  such, 
an  evil.  Or  there  might  have  been  engrafted  into  it  severities  even 
more  than  those  which  now  actually  exist,  and  this  we  ma}^  conceive 
to  have  been  an  excess  such  as  would  prove  itself  an  'evil.  And  so 
we  might  conceive  numerous  modifications  of  this  alternative  evil, 
which  God  has  happily  separated  forever  from  the  actually  existing 
universe.  But  as  this  alternative  evil,  though  immeasurably  trans- 
cending in  its  possibilities  all  the  realized  evil  ever  existing  or  to 
exist  in  connection  with  the  established  universe,  has  been  at  the 
same  time  absolutely  avoided,  we  may,  in  the  present  discussion,  dis- 
miss it  from  our  further  computation. 

Such  being  the  nature  of  evil  in  its  three  exhaustive  aspects,  it  is 
impossible  to  conceive  of  any  evil  other  than  that  which  must  be  in- 
cluded under  the  one  or  the  other  of  these  primary  forms.  What- 
ever divisions  may  be  made  or  terms  employed  to  designate  our 
notions  of  evil,  it  is  evident  that  an  ultimate  analysis  must  trace  each 
specific  instance  of  evil  back  to  one  of  the  three  conceptions  which 
have  now  been  specified.  Having  seen  therefore,  from  the  exposi- 
tion already  made,  that  the  actual  existence  of  the  evil  which  afilicts 
the  universe  must  of  necessity  in  some  manner  complicate  the 
agency  of  moral  or  spiritual  beings  in  its  origination  and  perpetuity, 
it  remains  to  consider,  as  proposed,  the  method  of  this  complication, 
both  in  respect  of  creatures,  and  especially  of  man,  and  also  of  the 
infinitely  perfect  Jehovah.  This  leads  us  to  the  second  branch  of 
the  general  discussion,  which  is — 

II.  The  relation  of  creature  agency  to  the  actual  evil  of  the  uni- 
verse, or  a  consideration  of  the  manner  in  which  angels  and  men  are 
connected  with  it. 


246  THE    EVIL    AFFECTIXG    THE    UNIVERSE. 

On  this  topic,  our  chief  inquiry  must  be  in  reference  to  the  blame- 
worthiness or  demerit  of  the  relation  in  question,  because  it  is  evi- 
dent, that  on  the  proper  determination  of  this  point  stands  the 
whole  weight  of  the  responsibility  of  the  introduction  of  evil  into  the 
universe.  And  though,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  we  may  not  obtain 
a  full  solution  of  the  difficulties  of  this  subject,  or  discover  a  theodicy 
which  is  competent,  in  every  imaginable  aspect,  to  "  vindicate  the 
ways  of  God  to  man,"  we  may  at  least  show  upon  whom,  in  the  exist- 
ing system  of  the  universe,  the  entire  burden  of  the  introduction  of  the 
evil  which  affects  it,  ought  of  right  to  rest,  and  does  in  fact  repose. 

Our  proposition  consequently  is,  that  from  the  very  nature  of 
evil,  and  from  the  only  possible  ways  in  which  it  can  be  conceived 
to  have  arisen,  the  responsibility  of  its  introduction  into  the  universe 
lies  alone  upon  the  moral  creatures  of  God.  The  blameworthiness 
of  its  existence  rests  solely  with  them.  Accordingly  it  is  clear,  as 
a  historic  truth,  that  previous  to  the  first  sin  of  the  first  sinner,  no 
trace  of  evil  of  any  kind,  was  to  be  found  in  all  the  universe.  But 
on  the  other  hand,  all  that  subsisted  was  good,  and  admirable,  and  to 
be  desired.  And  if,  in  hypothesis,  we  take  up  our  stand-point  at 
any  period  antecedent  to  the  first  act  of  sin  in  the  creature,  and 
thence  look  over  the  stupendous  fabric  of  the  creation,  we  shall 
behold  on  every  side,  and  without  exception,  displays  of  God's  good- 
ness, wisdom,  and  po-\Yer.  We  shall  see  the  countless  monuments 
of  beauty  and  grandeur,  of  peace  and  happiness,  of  perfection  and 
glory,  scattered  throughout  immensity,  with  nothing  as  yet  existing 
to  obscure  the  splendors  or  mar  the  mighty  substance  of  this  illim- 
itable empire.  We  shall  observe  how,  in  this  unperverted  order  of 
the  vast  economy,  the  tide  of  being  rolls  on  majestically,  and  over  all 
the  realm  of  the  unbounded  monarchy,  a  sound  of  hai'monies  breaks 
forth  so  musical,  so  full  of  life  and  light  and  immortality,  that  not 
even  the  suspicion  of  evil  shall  enter  upon  this  august  panorama  of 
unfallen  things,  as  it  sweeps  around  the  throne  of  the  eternal  Father, 
from  whose  complaisent  looks  there  ever  flows  a  smile  of  approbation 
on  all  the  creatures  of  His  authorship. 

•  Wherefore  then,  came  evil  ?  Whereat  could  it  thrust  itself  into 
the  goodly  universe  ?  We  mark  the  free  nature  of  angels  and  men, 
and  we  say  at  once,  "  there  it  crept  in ;  there  it  got  entrance,  and 
there  alone."  Creature  ageney  produced  it,  and  the  responsibility 
of  its  existence  lies  only  on  the  sinner.     The  first  appearance  of  evil 


THE   EVIL   AFFECTING   THE   UNIVERSE.  247 

was  an  intrusion  into  the  creation,  in  the  form  of  sin — the  disobedi- 
ence and  transgression  of  those  "  angels  who  kept  not  their  first 
estate."  Had  this  motion  of  moral  evil  never  risen  out  of  the  free 
nature  of  moral  beings,  all  actual  evil  must  have  been  unknown  to 
the  universe.  And  here  let  us  observe  more  particularly,  in  tracing 
the  inception  of  that  evil  which  has  really  accrued  under  the  divine 
government,  that  in  the  first  angel  that  sinned,  both  the  temptation 
and  the  act  of  submission  to  it  must  have  arisen  purely  with  himself, 
as  he  found  himself  conditioned  when  he  sinned.  There  could  have 
been  no  antecedent  evil ;  there  was  no  external  or  surrounding  evil. 
It  is  therefore  evident  that  no  form  of  evil  could  have  assailed  him 
from  without.  The  source  of  it  was  in  himself,  and  there  it  burst 
up.  If  it  be  suggested  here  that  he  must  have  been  the  subject  of 
temptation  presented  by  the  objects  around  him,  we  have  already 
shown  that  such  temptation  would  be  divested  of  the  attribute  of 
voluntariness,  and  therefore  not  properly  an  evil  in  itself.  That 
angel  was  a  moral  or  spiritual  being — the  subject  of  a  law  that  was 
"■  holy,  just  and  good."  He  was  created  perfect  after  his  kind.  His 
innocence  was  unexcepted,  and  his  happiness  complete.  God  had 
laid  no  necessity  upon  him  that  he  should  sin.  He  had  placed  him 
in  no  circumstances  which  ought  of  right  to  have  coerced  his  act  of 
sin.  There  he  stood,  in  his  original  innocence,  amid  the  most  suit, 
able  corresponding  external  conditions,  when  lo !  suddenly  his  heart 
changes,  and  the  fearful  lapse  begins.  Hard  feelings  and  murmuring 
thoughts  come  swelling  up,  and  black  and  damning  purposes  of  rebel- 
lion go  coursing  in  the  soul.  That  was  the  inception  of  moral  evil, 
and,  so  far  as  we  are  able  to  conceive  of  it  at  all,  that  was  the  manner  of 
its  introduction  into  the  existing  universe.  That  was  the  first  trans- 
gression of  the  moral  law,  by  a  moral  being  voluntarily  yielding  him- 
self upon  the  occasion  of  an  involuntary  temptation;  and  that  was  the 
first  act  of  sin.  It  is  plain,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  that  no  vol- 
untary temptation  at  that  time  existed;  for  this  would  imply  the 
presence  of  one  who  had  sinned  prior  to  the  first  sin,  which  is  ab- 
surd. So  that  the  first  temptation  must  have  involuntarily  arisen 
with  the  first  sinner,  in  view  of  the  surrounding  objects,  and  of  his 
own  condition  as  afiected  by  them.  But  suppose  that  under  the  pres- 
ence of  the  temptation  so  arising,  it  had  gone  no  farther  with  liim, 
moral  evil  would  still  have  been  shut  out,  because  the  being  tempted 
in  such  a  manner  was  not  itself  the  carrying  away  of  his  innocence, 


248  THE    EVIL   AFFECTING   THE   UNIVERSE. 

nor  the  subversion  of  his  integrity,  but  rather  became  instead  a 
conspicuous  occasion  for  the  additional  display  of  virtue.  But  this 
temptation  was,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  strangely  followed  by  submission 
to  an  act  of  sin.  The  creature  fully  yielded.  It  was  a  motion  of 
his  free  nature,  and  through  that  movement  evil  got  a  foothold  into 
the  great  empire  of  God. 

Now  there  was  no  need  of  opening  this  door ;  there  was  no  neces- 
sity for  such  an  occurrence — absolutely  none.  Nothing  hitherto 
derived  from  God  constrained  it,  but  on  the  contrary,  everything  so 
derived  put  discountenance  upon  it.  Nor  was  the  finite  reas.on  less 
positively  opposed  to  it,  while  firmness  of  resolution  might  forever 
have  barred  it  out.  Temptation  might  have  pried  with  all  its  keys 
for  the  ingress  of  moral  evil,  but  temptation  would  have  been  bafiled 
at  every  turn,  had  only  the  creature  set  the  watch,  and  with  an  un- 
wavering will,  looked  stern  and  defiant  on  every  beckoning  attitude 
of  solicitation.  But  creature  agency  betrayed  its  trust,  and  ever 
since  the  evil,  which  first  then  found  a  lodgment  in  the  empire  of 
Jehovah,  has  been  perpetuated  and  extended  in  the  free  action  of 
rebellious  creatures.  The  conclusion  is  inevitable.  The  blamewor- 
thiness of  evil  lies  wholly  with  God's  sinful  subjects.  Their  relation 
to  it  is  one  of  responsibility  and  guilt.  They  have  become  thus  fear- 
fully complicated  with  it,  and  must  bear  the  whole  demerit  of  its 
introduction,  as  to  the  past — while,  as  to  the  future,  they  must  be 
either  wholly  separated  from  it,  or  overwhelmed  and  ruined  by  it. 
Such  being  the  connection  of  angels  and  men  with  existing  evil,  we 
proceed  to  consider  the  third  general  topic,  which  is — 

III.  The  relation  of  the  divine  agency  to  the  evil  of  the  universe, 
or  the  sense  in  which  God  may  be  regarded  as  connected  with  it, 
and  His  designs  respecting  it. 

From  what  has  already  been  shown,  it  appears  that  the  blame- 
worthiness of  evil  belongs  exclusively  to  those  creatures  who  have 
sinned ;  and  therefore  we  may  assume,  once  for  all,  that  the  Deity 
holds  no  relationship  to  evil,  in  any  sense  derogatory  to  the  infinite 
perfections  of  His  character.  He  cannot  be  censured  on  account  of 
its  existence,  because  it  is  evident  that  He  is  not  properly  responsible 
for  its  introduction.  But  it  may  be  said,  if  God  had  not  chosen  and 
actualized  the  present  vsystem,  the  existing  evil  might  have  been  un- 
known. Of  course,  we  answer;  but  then  in  that  case,  what  we  have 
termed  the  alternative  evil  must  necessarily  have  existed,  and  that 


THE   EVIL   AFFECTING   THE   UNIVERSE.  249 

may  have  been  vastly  greater  than  all  actual  evil.  And  moreover,  if 
the  principle  be  admitted,  that  a  superior  being  should  do  absolutely 
nothing-,  because  some  inferior  being,  erring  from  the  law  of  right, 
may  take  occasion  to  pervert  the  innocent  works  of  that  superior, 
and  so  to  let  in  evil  where  before  no  evil  existed,  then  there  is  a 
necessity  which,  according  to  the  logical  requisitions  of  the  principle 
avowed,  must  compel  the  instant  blotting  out  of  the  universal  struc- 
ture, and  the  subsidence  of  all  its  products  into  the  primeval  noth- 
ingness. ''The  King  eternal,  immortal  and  invisible,"  must  sit 
alone  upon  a  senseless  throne,  wielding  a  barren  sceptre  over  the 
solitudes  of  a  depopulated  immensity.  But  from  such  a  conclusion 
the  understanding  itself  recoils,  because  the  principle  is  false,  and 
its  fruition  vicious. 

If  then,  the  connection  of  the  divine  agency  with  actual  evil  be 
wholly  separated  from  the  character  of  blameworthiness,  it  is  essen- 
tial to  consider  in  what  method  this  relation  of  Jehovah  to  the  pres- 
ent evil  actually  subsists,  and  with  what  jDurposes  He  proceeds  to 
administer  His  government  in  view  of  it.  In  the  statement  of  our 
hypothesis  upon  this  subject,  we  shall  submit  the  question  upon  the 
following  series  of  propositions  : 

1.  God  chose  and  actualized  the  present  existing  universe,  fore- 
knowing that  the  present  evil  would  exist. 

2.  He  jDurposed,  in  connection  with  all  the  other  constituent  phe- 
nomena of  the  universe,  to  permit  it  to  exist — that  is  'to  say,  foresee- 
ing the  liability  to  evil,  as  resulting  from  the  constitution  and  devel- 
opment of  the  chosen  system,  He  designed  to  tolerate  its  actual  ex- 
istence, in  view  of  the  manner  in  which  it  must  arise,  and  of  the 
possibilities  that  would  result,  in  the  order  of  nature,  subsequent  to 
the  event  of  its  actual  occurrence. 

3.  He  purposed,  upon  the  factivity  of  its  introduction  under  His 
government,  either  to  overrule  or  to  meet  it  with  such  positive  con- 
straints and  penalties  as  to  manifest  forever  to  the  universe  its  self- 
destructive  nature.  In  this  way,  the  evil  of  which  He  becomes  the 
direct  and  positive  Author  is  not  moral  evil,  but  that  natural  or 
constitutional  evil  which,  in  a  compensatory  system  like  that  of  th 
present  universe,  is  seen  to  be  necessary  for  the  proper  treatment  of 
such  moral  evil  as  may  spring  from  the  free  nature  of  moral  subjects, 
and  which  therefore  God  does  originate,  in  the  two-fold  aspect  of 
His  disciplinary  and  punitive  governance. 


250  THE   EVIL   AFFECTING   THE    UNIVERSE. 

4.  In  creating  the  present  universe,  God  did  not  desire  the  actual 
evil  with  it,  as  in  itself  considered.  Nor  did  He  necessitate  the  evil 
which  was  first  to  mar  the  beautiful  order  of  the  creation,  nor  was 
it  any  part  of  the  proper  and  essential  motive  which  may  be  sup- 
posed to  have  led  Him  to  the  choice  of  the  existing  system. 

5.  God  may  be  said  to  have  ordained  the  present  universe  in  spite 
of  the  actual  evil  which  attends  it,  and  because,  for  a  final  motive, 
of  the  vastly  greater  and  more  glorious  objects  which  are  apposite  to 
the  system  itself,  and  can  only  be  attained  through  its  .existence  and 
operation. 

6.  In  all  this,  it  is  not  possible  to  perceive  that  there  is  anything 
traceable  to  the  divine  agency  as  its  sole  and  proper  moral  cause, 
which  is  not  manifestly  "holy,  just  and  good."  Neither  in  the  de- 
signs of  God,  nor  in  His  overt  action,  can  there  be  found  anything 
which  looks  like  the  transcript  of  a  vicious  nature.  The  evil  which 
He  purposely  permits,  originates  in  the  action  of  responsible  creatures. 
The  evil  which  He  positively  creates  is,  in  the  order  of  nature,  but 
a  consequence  of  that  moral  evil  which  began  with  the  first  sinner, 
and  is  therefore,  so  far  from  derogating  from  the  divine  character, 
only  another  though  fearful  element  of  the  perfect  vindication  of 
Jehovah. 

In  further  illustration  of  these  positions,  we  are  not  to  overlook 
the  great  primordial  features  of  the  divine  manifestation  exhibited 
in  the  present  constitution  of  the  universe.  God  has  made  bright 
and  blessed  worlds.  He  has  made  innocent  and  happy  creatures. 
He  has  given  them  righteous  laws.  He  has  supplied  all  necessary 
provisions,  and  maintained  all  suitable  vigilance  for  the  realization 
of  one  unbroken  order  of  beneficence  and  perfection,  throughout  the 
entire  extent  of  His  immense  dominions.  How  or  when  therefore, 
did  He  desire  the  coming  in  of  evil  ?  How  or  when  did  He  favor 
or  foster  it  ?  How  or  when  did  He  put  forth  one  single  manifesta- 
tion of  His  character  which  offers  the  least  shadow  of  evidence  that 
He  could  authorize  or  sanction  it  ?  But  it  is  alleged  that  God  per- 
mitted sin  in  others.  And  what  was  this  but  permitting  them  to 
us'e  their  freedom  as  they  would,  even  though  He  had  built  around 
them  a  wall  of  warning,  and  established  every  moral  security  against 
the  contingency  of  their  evil  choice  ?  To  have  done  more  than  this 
for  the  prevention  of  evil,  He  must  have  arrested  the  moral  action 
of  His  creatures,  and  totally  obliterated  their  moral  nature.     The 


THE   EVIL   AFFECTING   THE   UNIVERSE.  251 

question  here  becomes  fundamental  to  the  perpetuity  of  the  moral 
universe.  Shall  the  creatures  of  God  retain  their  spiritual  being 
and  their  free  agency  ?  Then  must  they,  on  the  strictest  principles 
of  philosophy,  be  permitted  to  sin,  if  they  will  sin  against  light  and 
law  and  eternal  penalty.  But  it  is  alleged  that  Crcd  foreknew  that 
these  creatures  would  sin,  when  He  made  them.  And  what  was  this 
but  the  necessity  of  His  omniscience  ?  Can  He  be  blamed  for  know- 
ing all  things  ?  Or  could  He  of  right  be  estopped  from  the  work  of 
creation,  by  the  knowledge  of  the  coming  evil  ?  But  God  actually 
inflicts  pain  upon  the  sinner.  He  has  prepared  a  place  of  everlast- 
ing torment  for  the  finally  incorrigible  ofi"ender.  And  can  He  be 
blamed  for  this  when,  by  reason  of  His  character  as  Ruler  and  Judge, 
and  of  the  executive  office  of  supreme  administration,  He  is  bound 
to  uphold  and  protect  those  interests  and  laws  of  the  universe  which 
sin  assails  ?  Under  the  divine  government,  hell  is  the  philosophical 
result  of  sin,  no  less  than  the  positive  appointment  of  God  as  the 
retribution  for  violated  law.  The  question  of  the  divine  relation  to 
moral  evil  is  reduced  to  this — that  God's  purpose  is  not  to  prevent 
its  inception  and  specific  progress  within  the  limits  which  the  moral 
freedom  of  His  creatures  furnishes — and  that  beyond  this,  He  pur- 
poses to  overrule  or  to  punish. 

But  inasmuch  as  the  punishment  of  the  sinner  is  itself  an  evil,  in 
the  sense  of  suffering,  it  belongs  to  this  discussion  to  show  that^^so 
far  from  impeaching  God's  infinite  perfections,  the  pain  inflicted 
upon  moral  delinquents  could  not  be  withheld  or  averted  upon  any 
theory  consistent  with  those  perfections.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  the  divine  agency  is  continually  presented  in  a  two-fold  aspect — 
first  in  His  work  as  the  Author  and  Maker  of  the  universe,  and 
again  in  his  office  as  the  Upholder  and  Governor  of  the  universe.  In 
the  character  of  Creator,  God  elected  and  ordained  a  system  liable  to 
evil,  foreknowing  that  the  evil  would  accrue.  But  the  evil  which 
He  thus  foreknew  was  moral  evil — the  sin  of  moral  beings.  In  this 
remote  sense  only  can  the  divine  agency  be  said  to  be  related  to  the 
origin  of  evil,  since,  if  God  had  not  created  anythinrj^  moral  evil 
could  not  have  existed.  But  in  that  case,  the  alternative  evil  could 
not  have  been  evaded ;  and  this  might  have  been  a  result  far  worse 
than  that  which  has  actually  transpired.  It  is  true  this  statement 
of  the  case  at  once  brings  forward,  to  the  perplexity  of  our  under- 
standing, a  formidable  series  of  ulterior  difficulties,  which  no  theodicy 


252  THE   EVIL   AFFECTING   THE   UNIVERSE. 

ever  yet  devised  by  the  human  intellect  has  proved  capable  of  solv- 
ing.    Of  these  difficulties,  the  following  may  be  taken  as  examples  : 

1.  The  question  of  the  modification  of  the  present  universe  from 
what  it  now  is,  to  the  extent  of  rendering  the  liability  to  evil  impossi- 
ble. Why  could  this  not  have  been  done  ?  Is  not  the  assumption 
gratuitous,  that  there  is  no  middle  ground  between  the  existing  uni- 
verse with  its  contingent  or  actual  evil,  and  no  universe  at  all  ? 

2.  A  suggestion  from  the  revealed  fact  in  the  history  of  the  moral 
universe,  that  some  of  God's  moral  creatures  have  neve?  lost  '*  their 
first  estate,"  but  have  continued  in  the  perpetual  goodness  of  their 
spiritual  life.  The  question  is,  why  could  not  God  have  secured, 
upon  the  same  or  upon  similar  principles,  an  immunity  froni  evil  to 
all  His  moral  subjects?  Upon  what  basis  of  right  reason  can  this 
difference  in  the  condition  of  moral  beings  be  explained  ?  And  still 
further,  considering  the  doctrine  of  cause  and  effect  in  the  strict 
method  of  philosophy,  how  could  evil  come  to  exist  as  an  effect  at  ali, 
while  there  was  no  prior  evil  cause  to  produce  it?  If  like  causes 
produce  like  effects,  how  is  the  enigma  of  this  evident  solecism  to  be 
resolved  ? 

3.  A  derogation  from  the  perfections  of  the  Deity,  apparently 
arising  from  the  fact  that  somethivg  seems  to  exist  in  the  present 
universe  which  was  not  desired  by  Him,  which  did  not  emanate 
froin  Him,  which  came  to  be  in  the  face  of  all  His  wisdom,  good- 
ness and  power,  and  which  He  must  in  some  form  or  other  eon- 
tend  with  throughout  the  endless  ages  of  eternity.  This  something 
is  moral  evil.  It  is  the  direct  result  of  the  action  of  moral  beings, 
who  are  themselves  the  creatures  and  therefore  the  effects  of  God. 
This  moral  evil  is  consequently  the  effect  of  an  effect,  imme- 
diately traceable  to  the  great  First  Cause ;  or  if  it  have  no  first 
cause,  it  then  must  either  spring  from  the  second  cause  in  inde- 
pendence of  the  first,  in  which  case  an  antagonism  is  erected 
against  God  which  He  cannot  remove — or  it  must  exist  without  any 
cause  whatever,  that  is  be  self-existent  and  therefore  eternal  and 
unchangeable.  It  would  thus  become  an  incident  of  immensity, 
like'  time  and  space,  and  hence  be  divested  of  its  moral  quality 
altogether.  So  that  viewed  in  whatsoever  light,  the  fact  that  it  ex- 
ists at  all,  when  carried  to.  its  ultimate  analysis,  presents  a  problem 
which,  in  all  the  attempts  of  man  to  solve  it,  still  remains  as  totally 
mysterious  as  ever. 


THE    EVIL   AFFECTING   THE    UNIVERSE.  253 

4.  A  fourth  difficulty  is  disclosed  in  the  fact  that  every  hypothesis 
yet  constructed  by  human  thought  respecting  this  subject,  turns  out 
to  be  upon  close  inspection,  that  purest  of  all  metaphysical  inani- 
ties— a  petitio principii — a  "begging  of  the  premises,"  and  ''reason- 
ing in  the  circle."  The  divine  perfection  is  what  is  sought  to  be 
proved,  starting  from  the  stand-point  of  existing  evil.  If  God  couJd 
prevent  it,  and  loould  not,  how  is  He  infinitely  good  ?  If  He  would 
prevent  it,  but  coidd  not,  how  is  He  infinitely  powerful  ?  The  final 
result  of  our  rationality  upon  these  questions  is,  that  we  take  for 
granted  what  we  propose  to  prove,  and  we  prove  our  proposition  by 
what  we  take  for  granted.  A  single  formula  contains  it  all — God  is 
infinitely  good,  notwithstanding  the  existence  of  evil  j  and  though 
evil  exists,  still  God  is  infinitely  good.  This  is  the  substance  of  all 
that  the  human  intellect  has  yet  contributed  towards  the  final  dis- 
position of  the  subject  in  question.  And  indeed  rt  seems  incompe- 
tent to  do  more  than  this ;  for  whatever  hypothesis  may  be  assumed, 
or  whatever  philosophy  adopted,  it  appears  to  result  from  the  rela- 
tions of  the  finite  to  the  infinite,  that  every  step  in  the  advance  of 
human  knowledge  discloses  further  points  of  equal  mystery,  and  gives 
rise  to  new  questions  which,  though  couched  in  other  forms,  still 
embody  the  same  unsolved  problem. 

It  is  not  therefore,  our  object  in  this  discourse  to  attempt  any  ex- 
planation of  the  difficulties  thus  suggested  It  would  be  at  best 
but  a  futile  task.  Many  have  tried  it,  and  all  have  signally  failed 
in  the  efi'ort.  The  theories  of  Origen  and  of  Swedenborg  may  stand 
as  specimens  of  the  whole.  All  therefore  we  are  seeking  to  do,  is 
to  show  how,  or  in  what  manner,  the  divine  agency  stands  related  to 
the  present  actual  evil  of  the  universe,  and  not  to  furnish  the  slight- 
est satisfaction  as  to  the  ultimate  reasons  of  such  a  complication. 
The  will/  and  the  wherrforc  of  the  actual  phenomena,  and  their  philo- 
sophical reconciliation,  are  subjects  lying  wholly  beyond  the  scope 
of  our  present  rationality,  and  so  we  are  unable  to  incorporate  their 
elements  into  any  authoritative  demonstration. 

But  when  once  it  is  admitted  that  moral  evil  began  with  God's 
moral  creatures  in  the  way  we  have  supposed,  then  it  is  compara- 
tively easy  to  comprehend  the  fact  that  the  divine  agency  is  and 
should  be  connected  with  such  evil,  either  for  overrulement  or  pun- 
ishment— and  the  further  fact  that  in  His  office  of  Upholder  and 
Governor  of  the  universe,  God  does  so  treat  it.     And  in  so  dealing 


254  THE   EVIL   AFFECTING   THE   UNIVERSE. 

with  it,  He  does  often  directly  and  positively  create  or  cause  to  exist 
tlie  corresponding  physical  evil.  God  does  directly  and  positively 
decree  and  purpose  to  bring  evil  upon  the  oifender.  He  does  actually 
give  to  the  earth  its  barrenness,  to  the  winds  and  waves  their  fury,  to 
war  its  havoc,  to  famine  and  pestilence  their  fangs,  and  to  death  its 
fearful  sting.  He  does  undoubtedly  arm  the  elements  with  destruc- 
tive energy,  either  as  the  superadded  expression  of  His  anger  against 
sin,  or  as  the  required  discipline  of  those  whom  He  would  reclaim, 
or  finally  to  pay  off  in  just  and  judicial  retribution  the  score  of  the 
offender.  In  this  clear  and  administrative  sense,  the  Lord  does  create 
evil.  So  far  as  we  can  see,  He  would  be  blameworthy  if  He  did  not 
create  it,  for  as  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  the  universe  He  is  bound  by 
every  high  consideration  to  the  piinisliment  <^^  wrong-doing  so  soon 
as  it  is  clearly  demonstrated  that  its  overrulement  is  impossible.  In 
all  this  we  discover  at  last  the  relation  of  Jehovah  to  the  actual  evil 
of  the  universe.  It  is  a  relation  purely  permissive,  reformatori/,.  or 
punitive — not  one  which  as  to  Himself  is  condemnable  or  blame- 
worthy. 

Thus  from  the  nature  of  evil  as  it  actually  exists,  and  the  relations 
which  God  and  His  creatures  hold  to  it,  we  must  conclude  that  the 
beginning  of  actual  evil  is  sin  in  the  free  nature  of  moral  beings. 
We  know  nothing  of  actual  evil  prior  to  this,  either  in  God  or  the. 
uiiiverse.  The  existence  of  evil  demands  such  a  course  on  the  part 
of  the  Deity  as  shall  consist  with  the  designs  of  His  infinite  perfec- 
tions. This  last  necessity  God  fulfils,  first  with  a  view  to  the  final 
extirpation  of  evil,  and  secondly  to  concentrate  and  confirm  what 
may  not  be  thus  extirpated,  within  the  limits  of  that  place  and  con- 
dition which  He  lias  prepared  for  it,  to  remain  forever. 

If,  then,  there  be  any  consistency  or  correctness  in  the  view  now 
presented,  we  see  that  the  whole  matter  of  evil  in  its  origin  is  the 
intrusion  into  the  universe  of  an  unwelcome  visitant.  It  came  in  by 
no  positive  purpose  or  personal  act  of  Jehovah.  On  the  contrary, 
His  whole  endeavor  seems  to  be  to  eject  it.  The  sinner  would  keep 
it  in  the  system,  corroding,  convulsing,  destroying.  It  becomes 
therefore,  in  the  order  of  nature,  a  question  for  practical  treatment. 
If  it  cannot  be  cured,  it  must  be  separated  from  so  much  of  the  moral 
universe  as  may  be  possible  in  the  premises.  The  great  Physician 
must  either  purge  or  cut  it  out.  He  must  therefore  countervail  sin 
by  sufi'ering.     And  yet  the  physical  evil  so  inflicted  shall  be  none 


THE   EVIL   AFFECTING  THE   UNIVERSE.  255 

the  less  bitter,  because  God  is  just  in  dispensing  it.  "It  is  a  fearful 
thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  living  God/'  For  He  it  is  who 
can  kindle  the  penal  fire  and  awalic  the  awful  ministers  of  aveng- 
ing justice — He  it  is  who  is  roused  and  indignant  upon  every 
movement  of  sin,  whose  forbearance  will  not  always  last,  and  whose 
terrors  once  inflamed  shall  burn  to  the  lowest  hell — He  it  is  who  de- 
clares by  the  utter  inviolability  of  His  own  emphatic  oath,  "  the  soul 
that  sinncth  it  shall  die."  If  sin  then  cannot  be  overruled,  it  must 
be  met  with  punishment  awful  and  remediless. 

From  the  exposition  now  made  in  reference  to  the  evil  of  the  uni- 
verse, we  may  derive  some  lessons  of  the  gravest  import  to  our  pres- 
ent and  everlasting  well-being. 

1.  In  the  first  place,  we  have  the  spectacle  of  a  universe  invaded 
by  evil  with  which  the  Supreme  Power  of  the  government  proceeds 
to  grapple  for  its  overthrow.  In  this  great  conflict;  all  the  elements 
of  the  divine  empire  are  intensified,  and  all  its  features  brought  out 
into  bold  relief.  At  every  changing  scene  of  the  august  exhibition, 
there  is  a  further  confirmation  of  the  great  fundamental  truths  of 
divine  Revelation,  and  of  those  awful  verities  of  our  existence  which 
every  individual  of  the  human  race  must  meet.  It  is  the  movement 
of  an  empire  whose  Ruler  is  so  sovereign,  and  whose  issues  so  estab- 
lished, that  there  can  be  to  the  sinner  nowhere  either  evasion  or  im- 
punity. ''Be  sure  your  siu  will  find  you  out,"  is  the  fearful  sentence 
which  burns  along  the  pathway  of  every  flying  ofi'ender.  In  one  of  two 
ultimate  objects  this  inquest  shall  be  laid.  The  every  sin  of  every  sin- 
ner shall  hunt  after  him  till  he  is  discovered,  either  first,  that  he  may 
repent  and  be  restored ;  or  if  this  shall  fail,  then  secondly,  that  he 
may  be  consigned  to  the  punishment  that  is  everlasting  and  condign. 
This  is  the  solemn  ordinance  of  Heaven.  The  conditions  of  God's 
dealing  with  His  sinful  creatures  are  plainly  stated.  "  When  a 
righteous  man  turneth  away  from  his  righteousness  and  committeth 
iniquities,  for  his  iniquity  that  he  hath  done  shall  he  die."  Again  : 
"  When  the  wicked  man  turneth  away  from  his  wickedness  which 
he  hath  committed,  and  doeth  that  which  is  lawful  and  right,  he 
shall  save  his  soul  alive.  Because  he  considereth  and  turneth  away 
from  all  his  transgressions  that  he  hath  committed,  he  shall  surely 
live,  he  shall  not  die.  Therefore,  will  I  judge  you,  every  man  ac- 
cording to  his  ways,  saith  the  Lord  God.  Repent  and  turn  your- 
selves from  all  your  transgressions,  so  iniquity  shall  not  be  your  ruin. 


256  THE   EVIL  AFFECTING   THE   UNIVERSE. 

Cast  away  from  you  all  your  transgressions,  whereby  ye  have  trans- 
gressed, and  make  you  a  new  heart  and  a  new  spirit ;  for  why  will 
ye  die  ?  For  I  have  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  him  that  dieth, 
saith  the  Lord  God.  Wherefore  turn  yourselves  and  live  ye." 
These  are  the  principles  of  the  divine  administration,  and  to  give 
them  an  everlasting  power  in  a  world  of  rebellious  subjects,  God  has 
further  made  the  crowning  display  of  all  His  works  in  the  Gospel  of 
His  Son  Christ  Jesus. 

2,  We  have  therefore  a  second  impressive  lesson  in  the  plan  of 
Redemption  brought  to  light  in  the  Scriptures.  Upon  this  gracious 
economy  God  has  gone  forth  actually  to  accomplish  in  our  world  all 
that  can  be  done  for  the  cessation  of  evil,  up  to  the  point  beyond 
which  the  absolute  destruction  of  the  free  nature  of  His  moral  crea- 
tures is  all  that  would  be  left  to  be  enacted.  Up  to  this  point,  God 
has  in  the  Gospel  done  everything  possible  in  the  premises  to  reform 
and  deliver  men  from  evil.  He  has  established  another  covenant. 
He  has  initiated  another  dispensation.  He  has  given  to  sinful  men 
the  written  revelation  of  His  will.  He  has  provided  an  all-sufficient 
atonement  for  their  sins.  He  has  reprieved  them  throughout  the 
entire  period  of  this  probationary  life.  He  has  upheld  them  by  His 
providence,  admonished  them  by  His  Word,  instructed  them  by  His 
Spirit,  and  in  every  way  conditioned  them  upon  terms  most  favorable 
to  their  recovery  from  the  dominion  of  evil.  He  has  afforded  to 
them  every  facility,  and  bestowed  upon  them  every  blessing,  of  the 
glorious  economy  of  salvation.  He  has  given  them  His  Son,  "  to 
die,  the  just  for  the  unjust; "  and  with  IL'm,  also,  God  has  provided 
the  ordinances  of  the  church  and  the  means  of  grace.  In  manifold 
ways  He  conducts  the  ministration  of  mercy,  while  everywhere  is 
uttered  the  solemn  expostulation,  "  Turn  ye,  turn  ye,  for  why  will 
ye  die  ?  "  And  if,  when  tlie  period  of  respite  has  expired,  when 
at  last  it  is  discovered  that  the  sinner  has  rejected  all  the  overtures 
of  the  Gospel,  and  has  resolutely  persisted  in  the  way  and  in  the 
prosecution  of  evil,  shall  ''  it  be  thought  a  thing  incredible "  that 
God  should  abandon  him  to  his  own  chosen  ways,  and  "  fill  him  with 
the  fruit  of  his  own  doings  ?  "  It  is  this  result  to  which  the  guilty 
must  indeed  be  brought  at  last.  And  what  a  visitation  of  evil  must 
that  be  which  bears  in 'its  execution  the  fearful  weiglit  of  a  re- 
jected Gospel,  a  despised  Saviour,  abused  privileges,  and  squan- 
dered opportunities,  and  which  shall  roll  the  awful  curse  of  "  in- 


THE    EVIL   AFFECTING   THE    UNIVERSE.  257 

dignation  and  wratli,  tribulation  and  anguish,"  over  tlie  human  spirit 
forever ! 

3.  There  is  one  further  serious  lesson  to  be  derived  from  this  view 
of  existing  evil.  We  have  already  seen  that  evil  was  first  originated 
by  the  action  of  God's  moral  subjects,  and  that  by  the  same  action 
it  is  now  maintained.  Since,  then,  it  exists  by  creature  agency,  it 
is  emphatically  by  the  same  agency  that  it  must  be  made  to  cease. 
There  is  a  way  in  which  our  world  might  be  entirely  separated  from 
every  vestige  of  the  evil  which  afflicts  it.  Were  everything  now  to 
cease  from  sin,  and  henceforth  take  a  steady  stand  for  God  and  holi- 
ness, this  would  finish  the  disorder,  and  finally  efi"ace  from  human 
conditions  all  that  now  makes  up  the  curse  and  the  catastrophe  of 
the  creation.  What  we  have  to  do  is  just  to  retrace  our  steps,  drag 
back  the  evil  we  have  caused,  and  thrust  it  out  again.  If  it  is  to  go 
out  at  all,  it  must  disappear  by  the  same  door  through  which  it  was 
brought  in.  If  it  is  to  go  out  at  all,  it  must  be  made  to  vanish 
during  the  period  of  man's  probation.  It  must  go  while  yet  repent- 
ance is  possible,  and  pardon  and  peace  may  be  had  at  the  seat  of  that 
Sovereign  Mercy  over  which  there  seems  to  shine  a  sentence  of  living 
comfort — "  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  from  all  sin."  It 
must  go  now,  "  in  this  accepted  time,  in  this  day  of  salvation."  It 
must  go  when  as  yet  God  is  putting  forth  His  power  to  allay  the  ter- 
rors it  has  spread  around,  and  to  break  its  deadly  spell,  and  to  delivei 
its  unhappy  subjects  from  the  captivity  of  their  guilt. 

Then,  my  fellow-men,  there  is  in  all  this  a  pressure  of  obligation 
and  of  duty  which  lies  on  every  one  of  us,  so  great  as  scarcely  to  be 
borne.  If  we  have  heard  the  voice  of  God  calling  us  to  our  great 
work  of  "  ceasing  to  do  evil  and  learning  to  do  well,"  how  shall  we 
contrive  to  postpone  for  a  single  hour  the  action  that  must  be  taken 
in  our  deliverance  and  salvation  ?  How  shall  we  still  dwell  upon 
our  earthly  projects,  in  ruinous  indifference  to  all  these  mightier 
verities  of  the  government  of  God  ?  How  shall  we,  in  utter  mad- 
ness, still  cleave  to  the  great  iniquity,  and  still  swing  the  red  scimitars 
of  sin,  reeking  in  the  fresh-drawn  blood  of  the  Messiah,  in  the  face 
of  the  omnipotent  Jehovah  ?  The  day  shall  come  when  we  must  be 
hurried  through  the  iron  gateway,  to  behold,  on  the  other  side,  the 
august  phase  of  irreversible  destiny.  No  present  quietude,  no  earthly 
stays,  shall  hold  us  back.  But  as  we  ride  insensible  upon  the  eternal 
wave,  the  bitter  truth  may  then  first  break  upon  us,  that  "  sin,  when 
17 


-58  THE  EVIL  AFFECTING  THE   UNIVEKSE. 

it  is  finished,  bringetli  forth  death."  And  then  shall  the  furies  of 
an  undone  existence  make  each  man  to  know  the  height  and  depth 
and  the  length  and  breadth  of  that  evil  which  he  has  authorized  and 
perpetuated,  in  spite  of  all  the  reclamations  that  flow  from  the  Re- 
deemer's Cross.  Oh  !  then,  while  yet  the  catastrophe  delays,  and  all 
the  wretchedness  of  our  estate  may  be  disposed  of  in  another  way, 
let  the  summons  of  Jehovah  be  instantly  obeyed.  "  Let  the  wicked 
forsake  his  way,  and  the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts,  and  let  him 
return  unto  the  Lord,  and  He  will  have  mercy  upon  him ;  and  to  our 
God,  for  He  will  abundantly  pardon."    Amen. 


.»;:J  >J 


260  THE  IMPORTANT   CHOICE. 

of  Christ.  It  should  never  be  done,  without  careful  counting  of  the 
cost.  To  come  up  to  the  altar,  and  there,  with  the  hand  laid  upon 
the  great  sin-offering,  to  renounce  the  devil  and  all  his  works,  con- 
secrating ourselves  soul  and  body  to  the  Saviour,  involves  tremendous 
consequences.  To  do  this,  merely  in  compliance  with  a  hereditary 
custom,  thoughtlessly  and  carelessly — to  do  it,  with  no  intelligent 
perception  of  the  self-denials  of  a  religious  profession ;  or  to  do  it, 
under  a  temporary,  spasmodic  feeling,  and  from  sympathy  with  the 
general  interest  about  us — is  a  grievous  and  damning-  sin.  If  the 
ceremony  have  any  meaning,  it  is  awfully  significant.  It  is  the  most 
solemn  act  which  a  creature  can  perform.  It  professedly  separates 
us,  thoroughly  and  eternally,  from  the  world.  Thenceforth,  its 
"  vain  pomp  and  glory  "  are  abjured,  its  sinful  lusts  renounced,  its 
covetous  desires  disowned.  We,  and  all  that  we  have,  belong  to 
God. 

I.  The  first  question  that  we  shall  consider  is  this  :  What  is  essen- 
tial in  order  to  the  actual  exercise  of  the  will  in  choosing  the  service 
of  the  Lord ;  or,  in  other  words,  what  is  the  nature  and  process  of  a 
genuine  conversion  ?  In  its  every  stage,  it  is  the  result  of  an  opera- 
tion of  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  the  heart.  If  we  are  convinced  of  our 
guilt,  it  is  because  ''  He  is  come,  who  will  reprove  the  world  of  sin." 
If  our  minds  are  enlightened  as  to  the  things  of  heaven,  it  is  because 
"  God  hath  revealed  them  unto  us  by  His  Spirit."  If  we  die  unto 
sin,  it  is  because  we  experience  the  new  birth  of  the  Spirit.  If  we 
are  sanctified,  it  is  by  the  same  Spirit.  Every  Christian  grace  im- 
planted in  us  is  a  fruit  of  the  Spirit;  and  by  Him  are  we  ''sealed 
unto  the  day  of  redemption."  There  is  not  one  independent  move- 
ment of  the  soul,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  process  of 
renewal.  It  is  not  capable  of  such  a  movement,  and  yet  its  every 
motion  is  voluntary  and  free.  .  No  other  being  chooses  for  us.  The 
appeal  is  made  to  you  personally — ■"  choose  ye  this  day  whom  ye  will 
serve." 

The  Holy  Ghost  deals  with  us  in  the  fullest  recQgnition  of  our 
freedom.  So  far  as  our  consciousness  can  reach,  it  is  by  the  power 
of  motives  addressed  to  the  understanding  and  the  heart,  that  He 
effects  the  mighty  change.  There  is  heard  the  voice  of  argument : 
''  Come  now  and  let  us  reason  together,"  saith  the  Lord.  There  is 
heard  the  voice  of  threatening:  "I  will  laugh  at  your  calamity,  and 
mock  when  your  fear  cometh,"     There  is  heard  the  voice  of  en- 


THE   IMPORTANT   CHOICE.  2G1 

treaty :  "  Return  unto  me,  and  I  will  return  unto  you."  There  is 
heard  the  voice  of  encouragement:  "Come  unto  me,  and  I  will  give 
you  rest."  There  is  indeed  some  mysterious  action  of  the  divine 
upon  the  human  mind,  analogous  to  the  exercise  of  creative  power, 
which  lies  far  back  of  our  consciousness,  and  therefore  cannot  be 
subjected  to  analysis.  How  it  is  wrought,  passes  our  comprehension. 
It  is  among  the  deep  things  of  God.  It  need  not,  however,  obscure 
our  view  of  the  formal  process  of  renewal.  It  is  impossible  for  us  to 
define  the  essential  nature  of  physical  or  vegetable  life ;  how  God 
creates,  we  cannot  tell ;  but  all  the  processes  of  life  are  open  to  our 
observation.  We  know  all  the  conditions  of  its  existence.  We  know 
where  the  seed  must  be  planted,  and  how  it  must  be  sheltered  ;  and 
we  can  foresee  precisely  the  character  of  the  plant,  from  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  nature  of  the  seed ;  but  what  it  is  which  causes  the  seed 
to  germinate  at  all,  we  cannot  define.  All  life,  in  its  inception,  is  an 
unfathomable  mystery.  "So  is  every  one  that  is  born  of  the  Spirit." 
The  efi'ectual  grace  of  God  must  move  upon  the  soul,  in  order  to  our 
choosing  to  be  His  servants;  to  every  one  that  will  make  this  choice, 
the  grace  is  given.  There  stand  the  two  facts,  alike  certain  and 
alike  inexplicable.  But  there  is  no  necessity  for  us  to  perplex  our- 
selves with  these  mysteries,  for  all  with  which  we  are  practically 
concerned  is  easily  understood.  The  process  of  spiritual  life  we  will 
now  endeavor  to  exhibit. 

The  truth  of  the  Gospel  is  first  presented  to  th(^  understanding. 
Grace  and  truth  are  always  found  in  company,  and  both  "  come  by 
Jesus  Christ."  We  are  called  upon  to  "obey  the  truth."  "Ye  shall 
know  the  truth,"  says  the  Saviour,  "  and  the  truth  shall  make  you 
free."  Truth  is  the  key  which  unlocks  our  dungeon  door.  Christ 
says  of  Himself,  "I  am  the  truth."  The  Holy  Ghost  is  called  "the 
Spirit  of  truth."  Jesus  prays  that  His  people  may  be  "  sanctified 
through  the  truth."  St.  Paul  describes  his  ministry  as  a  "manifesta- 
tion of  the  truth."  Repentance  is  termed  the  "acknowledging 
of  the  truth."  There  is  then,  in  every  step  of  our  renewal,  a  distinct 
recognition  of  man's  intdlectual  nature.  He  is  supposed  to  be  capa- 
ble of  discerning  the  true  from  the  false,  and  of  being  impressed  by 
the  truth.  And  in  all  this  is  involved  the  fact  that  he  must  exercise 
the  power  of  choice,  and  be  led  to  this  choice  by  the  influence  of 
motive.  His  sin  consists  in  this — that  he  has  hitherto  chosen  wrong; 
he  must  now  be  brought  to  choose  right. 


262  THE   IMPORTANT   CHOICE. 

And  what  is  the  truth  with  which  the  Holy  Spirit  plies  the  soul  ? 
Comprehensively,  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus." 

The  minci  is  always  busy  upon  something.  Science  may  tax  its 
energies,  and  so  the  man  become  well  skilled  in  the  wisdom  of  the 
world.  Schemes  of  profit  may  exhaust  its  powers,  and  secure  to  the 
laborer  abundant  wealth.  Dreams  of  vanity  may  weave  themselves 
there,  filling  the  vacuum  with  spider's  webs.  But  there  is  one  sub- 
ject to  which  by  nature  we  are  always  averse.  That  is  the  law  of 
God.  We  dislike  it,  because  it  condemns  us.  It  tells_us  that  of  our- 
selves, which  we  hate  to  hear.  By  it,  is  'Hhe  knowledge  of  sin." 
This  is  something  of  which  we  prefer  to  remain  in  ignorance.  But 
the  Spirit  forces  this  subject  upon  our  notice.  He  tells  us  the  truth 
concerning  ourselves.  He  forces  us  to  acknowledge  that  it  is  the 
truth.  And  then  there  comes  up  from  the  depths  of  the  soul  the 
earnest  cry,  ''  Woe  is  me,  for  I  am  undone! " 

This  result  efi"ected,  there  appears  upon  the  canvas  another  .pic- 
ture. Sinai  vanishes,  with  its  smoke  and  its  thunderings ;  and  Cal- 
vary shines  forth,  with  its  Cross  and  its  redemption.  The  stern  voice 
of  vengeance  sinks  into  a  whisper  of  mercy.  The  clouds  break,  and 
the  sun  gleams  upon  the  earth.  The  eye  is  anointed  by  the  hand 
of  faith,  and  we  see  Jesus  interceding  for  us  with  an  offended  God. 
"  Father,  forgive  them ! "  The  words  fall  like  music  upon  the  ear. 
The  law  still  condemns,  but  there  is  salvation  by  grace.  This  is  in 
brief  the  truth  which  the  Spirit  reveals.  Thus  does  ''  He  take  of  the 
things  of  Christ,  and  show  them  to  us."  Until  this  is  done,  we  remain 
utterly  blind  to  our  own  condition,  and  hopelessly  indifi'erent  as  to 
our  salvation.  From  prudential  motives,  we  may  abstain  from  the 
grosser  forms  of  sin — from  the  force  of  education,  we  may  manifest 
an  outward  respect  for  religious  observances;  but  not  one  step  do  we 
advance  towards  heaven.  We  are  "without  God  and  without  hope." 
Our  "  feet  stand  in  slippery  places,"  and  we  hang  upon  the  very 
brink  of  hell.  "The  truth  is  not  in  us."  Conscience  slumbers. 
The  will  is  inert.  Holy  affections  are  dead.  Selfishness  rules  the 
members  and  the  mind.  The  heart  is  swollen  witK  pride,  cankered 
by  avarice,  corrupted  through  lust.  I  know  that  the  sinner  will 
deny  this,  for  deceitfulness  is  one  element  of  the  heart's  desperate 
wickedness.  He  does  n.ot  understand  his  own  errors.  '  And,  when- 
ever the  spirit  flashes  the  light  of  heaven  into  the  dark  chambers  of 
his  soul,  he  stands  aghast  at  the  disclosures  which  are  made.     And 


THE   IMPORTANT   CHOICE.  263 

very  often  lie  is  unwilling  to  take  a  second  glance;  but,  with  a  sud- 
den and  convulsive  effort,  shuts  the  door  of  his  heart  against  the 
light,  preferring  to  be  ignorant  of  what  lies  within. 

And  this  leads  us  to  our  second  observation — that,  in  a  process 
of  renewal,  not  only  must  truth  be  presented  to  the  mind,  but 
we  must  be  induced  to  dioell  upon  truth,  and  give  it  time  to  do  its 
work. 

All  important  and  permanent  changes  for  the  better  in  our  moral 
condition  must  be  the  result  of  reflection.  It  is  not  generally  on  the 
instant  that  we  perceive  i\\e  full  bearings  of  spiritual  truth.  Most 
men  will  carelessly  acknowledge  that  they  are  sinners ;  but  they  do 
not  consider  what  it  is  to  be  a  sinner,  in  what  a  position  it  places 
them  before  God.  His  law  must  be  comprehended  in  order  to  this, 
and  the  final  judgment  must  be  distinctly  brought  before  their 
minds.  They  must  think  seriously  and  patiently.  ■  "  When  I  con- 
sider, I  am  afraid."  It  requires  a  steady  gaze  to  measure  the  long 
distance  which  separates  the  transgressor  from  his  Maker.  The  cat- 
alogue of  our  sins  is  not  to  be  read  at  a  glance.  Many  of  them  we 
have  forgotten,  and  they  cannot  be  recalled  without  an  effort.  If 
they  were  all  written  in  a  book,  and  it  were  put  into  our  hands,  we 
should  be  shocked  at  its  magnitude.  Days  and  weeks  would  be  needed 
for  its  perusal.  And  oh !  how  we  should  tremble  as  we  turned  it 
over,  leaf  by  leaf,  and  found  each  page  growing  darker  and 
darker.  That  will  he  the  melancholy  occupation  of  feternity,  unless 
the  record  be  blotted  out  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.  Neither  can 
the  depths  of  grace  be  penetrated  in  a  moment.  We  can  perhaps 
tell  you  nothing  of  the  work  of  Christ  which  you  did  not  know 
before;  it  is  not  information  which  you  need;  but,  if  you  would 
take  the  simplest  truth  of  the  Gospel,  and  meditate  upon  it  till  it 
stands  out  in  all  its  distinctness,  it  would  come  home  to  you  with  a 
power,  and  be  invested  with  a  meaning,  which  never  before  entered 
into  your  conception.  "  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  from 
all  sin."  Those  words  are  not  new;  the  ftict  which  they  state  is 
perfectly  familiar  to  you,  and  it  has  perhaps  never  stirred  a  single 
pulsation  in  your  breast ;  but  if  you  would  only  give  your  thoughts 
to  this  truth ;  if  you  would  consider  that  you  have  been  redeemed 
by  blood,  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  this  is  cleansing  blood; 
that,  even  though  your  soul  be  as  red  as  crimson,  crimson  blood  will 
wash  it  white  as  snow;  if  you  would  fix  your  attention  upon  these 


264  THE   IMPORTANT   CHOICE. 

things  until  you  really  apprehend  them^  you  would  rise  up  "a  wiser 
and  a  better  man." 

The  necessity  of  patient  dwelling  upon  the  truth  is  seen  in  this, 
that  truth  must  shape  itself  into  motive,  before  it  can  act  upon  the 
will.  Now,  a  moral  motive  is  the  combined  result  of  the  action  of 
conscience  and  affection,  conscience  showing  what  is  right,  and  the 
affections  urging  us  on  to  obedience.  Truth  enlightens  the  con- 
science and  excites  the  affections.  It  does  this  just  in  proportion  to 
the  intensity  with  which  it  is  apprehended.  It  is  with  the  fire  of 
burning  thoughts  that  the  Holy  Ghost  melts  the  iron  obstinacy  of 
the  rebellious  will.  The  sinner  begins  to  think ;  it  may  be  some 
domestic  affliction  that  sends  him  to  his  closet — the  revered  and  be- 
loved parent,  the  sweet  child,  or  the  affectionate  partner,  dearer  than 
all,  has  been  laid  away  in  the  grave,  and  he  flies  from  the  world's 
uproar  to  weep  in  secret.  The  Spirit  of  God  goes  with  him  to  his 
lonely  chamber,  and  there  holds  solemn  colloquy  with  his  soul.  His 
thoughts  are  led  forward  into  eternity.  He  seems  to  see  the  spirit 
of  the  departed  beckoning  to  him  from  the  land  of  shadows. 
He  remembers  how  soon  he  must  follow.  The  question  now 
begins  to  press  achingly  upon  his  heart,  "Am  I  prepared  for 
the  change  of  worlds  ?  "  The  attending  angel  unrolls  before  him 
the  record  of  the  past.  He  reads,  and  trembles  as  he  reads.  The 
World  has  had  all  his  time  and  all  his  thoughts.  God  has  been 
forgotten.  The  Saviour  has  been  denied.  "  He  has  sown  to  the 
flesh,  and  must  reap  corruption,"  "What  shall  I  do?"  he  cries 
in  agony.  "Pray!"  answers  the  Holy  Ghost.  There  comes  a 
struggle.  Those  knees  have  not  been  wont  to  bend,  before  man  or 
God.  The  words  of  prayer  would  sound  strangely  from  those  lips. 
Pride  remonstrates;  despair  whispers,  "It  is  too  latel"  Satan 
pleads  for  a  respite  :  "  It  is  time  enough  yet ;  tarry  awhile  ! "  He 
knows,  wise  and  artful  as  he  is,  that  the  crisis  has  now  come,  and 
that  the  prey  is  slipping  from  his  hands.  Oh !  it  is  a  crisis,  and 
heaven  is  poised  upon  the  uncertain  balance  of  the  human  will. 
"  What  shall  I  say  to  God  ?  "  asks  the  timid  and  convicted  sinner. 
"  Say  whatever  is  in  your  heart ! "  replies  the  Holy  Ghost.  "  Shall 
I  be  heard  ? "  he  asks  again.  There  come  crowding  upon  his  mind 
the  multiplied  and  earnesi  promises  of  God ;  and  Jesus  draws  near, 
pointing  to  His  wounds,  and  the  shadow  of  the  atoning  cross 
seems  to  fall  upon  his  chamber  floor,  and  he  sinks  upon  his  knees, 


THE   IMPORTANT   CHOICE.  265 

and  tliere  is  prayer  in  his  heart — real,  accepted  prayer — even  before 
the  words  are  formed  upon  his  lips.  ''  God  be  merciful  to  me  a 
sinner ! "  at  length  breaks  from  his  burdened  soul.  He  lays  him- 
self in  faith  at  the  Saviour's  feet,  giving  all  he  has  to  Jesus,  choos- 
ing Him  as  his  everlasting  portion,  and  the  offering  is  accepted. 
Angels  touch  their  harps  to  a  loftier  note  over  one  more  sinner  who 
has  repented. 

And  what  has  wrought  this  change  ?  Instrumentally,  and  in  the 
hands  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  it  has  been  the  simple  fact  that  the  sinner 
was  brought  to  earnest  and  intense  reflection.  "  While  he  was 
musing,  the  fire  burned."  Truth  was  applied  to  his  soul;  circum- 
stances led  him  to  give  special  attention  to  the  truth ;  gradually  it 
found  its  way  to  his  conscience  and  his  affections ;  he  turned  his  face 
in  penitence  to  God,  and  on  the  instant  the  hand  of  reconciliation 
was  stretched  forth,  and  he  was  adopted  as  a  son.  His  final  act  was 
one  of  choice — a  free  and  cheerful  acceptance  of  the  Saviour ;  and 
.had  he  stopped  short  of  this,  all  the  emotion  which  he  experienced 
would  have  gradually  subsided,  and  after  a  while  he  would  have 
returned  to  the  world,  ten-fold  more  hardened  than  ever  before. 

II.  The  question  to  which  I  shall  now  direct  your  attention  is 
this :  What  are  the  most  prominent  hindrances  in  the  way  of  a  final 
decision  to  consecrate  the  life  to  God  ? 

And  here  I  may  remark,  that,  whatever  they  may  be,  they  have  a 
common  origin  and  a  common  character.  Their  origin'  is  in  the  nat- 
ural depravity  of  the  heart,  and  they  are  in  themselves  only  its  sin- 
ful issues.  We  may  throw  around  the  matter  whatever  appearance 
of  palliation  we  can  devise ;  we  may  say  that  we  cannot  come  to  a 
decision,  because  we  wait  for  further  light,  or  because  the  present 
conjuncture  of  circumstances  does  not  favor  it,  or  because  we  are  so 
shocked  at  the  inconsistencies  of  professed  Christians,  or  because  we 
do  not  feel  the  necessity  of  an  immediate  decision ;  these  are  only 
different  forms  in  which  the  rebellion  of  the  heart  manifests  itself 
And  yet  it  may  be  well  to  enter  into  certain  particulars,  and  see  how 
they  operate  to  hinder  a  decision.  One  prominent  difficulty  grows  out 
of  the  popular  estimate  of  religion.  The  Gospel,  in  certain  of  its  more 
general  features,  in  our  day,  may  be  considered  as  having  received 
the  favorable  verdict  of  the  community.  A  degree  of  respect  is  paid 
to  its  outward  forms  by  all  who  would  maintain  a  reputable  standing 
in  society.    Christianity  is  generally  noticed  with  respect  in  our  liter- 


266  THE   IMPORTANT    CHOICE. 

ature.  It  is  not  fashionable  to  profane  the  name  of  the  Eternal  God, 
or  openly  to  trifle  with  the  awful  secrets  of  the  dark  prison-house  of 
the  damned.  It  is  easy  to  distinguish,  by  the  aspect  of  the  city,  the 
Lord's  day  from  secular  time.  All  the  grosser  vices,  which  our  re- 
ligion condemns,  are  also  condemned  by  the  civil  law  and  by  public 
opinion.  Christianity,  with  its  wonderful  system  of  ethics,  its 
sublime  truths  and  glorious  revelations,  its  disclosures  of  a  judg- 
ment and  an  eternity — with  its  eventful  history  of  persecutions  and 
martyrdoms  and  heroes — with  its  long  array  of  learned  and  powerful 
supporters — with  its  trophies  of  refinement  and  civilization,  gathered 
wherever  the  world  has  been  trodden  in  its  triumphant  march — with 
its  noble  temples,  its  impressive  services,  and  its' growing  dominion — 
would  certainly  afford  a  strange  subject  for  contemptuous  ridicule. 
Even  if  I  were  an  infidel,  I  would  as  soon  think  of  sneering  at  the 
science  of  astronomy.  If  I  believed  that  the  Grospel  were  but  an  idle 
fable,  I  should  find  in  it  but  little  food  for  laughter.  If  I  thought  it 
all  a  delusion,  when  I  saw  the  Gospel  making  the  drunkard  temperate, 
the  thief  honest,  the  lascivious  pure,  the  passionate  sober,  the  riotous 
calm,  the  avaricious  liberal,  the  ambitious  humble,  the  selfish  open- 
handed,  I  should  hesitate  before  I  ridiculed  such  a  faith.  When  I  saw 
this  religion  lifting  its  genuine  professors  above  the  infected  atmos- 
phere of  the  world,  tempering  their  minds  in  prosperity,  and  cheering, 
them  in  adversity — when  I  saw  the  spirit  of  Christian  faith  and  hope 
hovering  like  an  angel  of  consolation  around  the  dying  bed  of  the 
believer,  and  lighting  up  with  joy  the  dreary  passage  :tothe  tomb — it 
would  not  be  in  my  heart  to  interpose  a  single  obstacle  to  hinder  a 
fellow- creature  from  attaining  its  comforts  and  its  blessings. 

And  yet  it  is  the  fact,  that,  in  certain  aspects,  popular  usages  and 
opinions  are  directly  opposed  to  the  spirit  and  requirements  of  the 
Gospel.  It  must  necessarijy  be  so,  in  respect  of  what  may  be  called 
the  great  central  doctrines  of  Christianity,  so  long  as  Christ's  King- 
dom is  not  of  this  world.  It  cannot  be  expected  that  an  individual 
will  regard  with  favor  and  complacency  any  higher  standard  of  god- 
liness than  he  practices  himself  A  worldly  community  will  not 
■patronize  a  system  which  declares  that,  ''if  any  man  love  the  world, 
the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  in  him."  And  therefore  it  is,  that  even 
in  circles  where  Christianity  in  its  general  features  is  treated  with 
respect,  there  will  be  manifested  the  most  bitter  and  resolute  opposi- 
tion to  that  doctrine  which  declares  the  vital  and  absolute  necessity 


THE  IMPORTANT   CHOICE.  267 

of  a  radical  eliange  of  heart  and  life.  It  is  opposed  and  ridiculed, 
not  so  much  theoretically  as  practically.  There  is  no  proper  distinc- 
tion made  between  the  earnest  and  genuine  convictions  of  the  contrite 
heart  and  the  wild  outbreaks  of  the  maddened  enthusiast.  The 
awakened  emotion  is  ascribed  to  melancholy,  or  caprice,  or  some 
idiosyncrasy,  which  is  to  be  removed  by  secular  employment  and  re- 
laxation ;  and  various  influences,  direct  and  indirect,  are  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  convicted  sinner,  to  divert  his  thoughts,  and  enkindle 
his  pride,  and  lead  away  his  mind  from  the  things  of  eternity.  These 
efforts  too  often  prove  successful,  and,  after  a  few  faint  struggles,  the 
voice  of  conscience  is  silenced,  and  the  world  resumes  its  sway. 

Another  class  of  hindrances  grows  out  of  peculiar  habits  and  tempt- 
ations connected  with  our  secular  occupation.  Whatever  that  may 
be,  it  is  liable  to  interpose  special  obstructions  in  the  way  of  a  final 
and  decisive  consecration  of  the  heart  to  God. 

It  is  hard  for  the  man  who  is  absorbed  in  any  secular  pursuit, 
tasking  his  energies  in  the  pursuit  of  wealth,  excited  to-day  by  a 
favorable  turn  of  fortune,  and  depressed  to-morrow  by  the  prospect 
of  reverses,  to  give  his  mind  long  enough  and  intently  enough  to  the 
subject  of  religion  to  reach  a  fixed  decision.  In  the  silent  hour  of 
the  night-watches,  when  sleep  forsakes  his  eyelids,  solemn  medita- 
tions may  possess  his  soul,  and  the  question  sorely  agitate  him, 
'^  What  shall  it  profit  me  if  I  gain  the  whole  world  ?  "  but,  with  the 
excitement  of  the  morning,  and  amid  the  bustle  of  returning  day,  all 
these  things  are  forgotten.  He  does  not  actually  resolve,  finally  and 
forever,  to  banish  the  subject  from  consideration;  he  acknowledges 
its  importance;  he  hopes  to  make  his  peace  with  God  before  he 
leaves  the  world ;  he  is  not  satisfied  with  his  condition,  but  earthly 
cares  have  preoccupied  his  mind ;  and  so  year  after  year  slips  by, 
and  the  will  lies  dormant.  He  comes  to  no  decision,  and  at  last  he 
givcth  up  the  ghost,  and  where  is  he  ? 

So  it  is  with  the  ambitious  man,  whose  hopes  are  suspended  upon 
the  people's  favor,  who  is  busily  studying  how  to  win  the  public  ear, 
and  secure  for  himself  the  place  of  power.  He  must  scheme  and  coun- 
ter-scheme, watch  lynx-eyed  and  incessantly  his  opponent's  move- 
ments ;  he  breathes  a  tainted  atmosphere ;  the  lines  of  truth  and  false- 
hood become  strangely  blended ;, he  learns  to  check  the  honest  expres- 
sion of  his  mind,  and  trains  himself  to  utter  whatever  policy  may  dic- 
tate.   In  some  hour  of  disappointment,  when  he  is  disgusted  with  the 


268  THE   IMPORTANT   CHOICE. 

honors  of  the  world,  and  loathing  its  empty  promises,  the  Spirit  of 
God  may  stand  before  the  door  of  his  soul,  and  hold  up  to  his  view 
an  incorruptible  crown,  reserved  in  heaven  for  those  who  love  the 
Saviour.  He  is  prompted  to  secure  that  crown,  and  to  seek  the 
honor  which  cometh  from  Grod.  Angels  gather  around  him,  to  second 
these  holy  desires.  Great  truths,  which  he  had  long  forgotten, 
crowd  upon  his  mind.  The  frozen  surface  of  his  heart  begins  to 
melt.  The  will,  which  had  seemed  so  rigid  and  immovable,  vibrates 
faintly  and  tremulously.  But  at  this  critical  moment,  there  is  a 
change  in  the  aspect  of  earthly  fortune.  The  long-coveted  prize, 
which  had  been  given  up  in  despair,  is  suddenly  laid  at  his  feet.  A 
thousand  voices  shout  the  name  of  the  successful  statesman  with 
vociferous  and  hearty  acclamation.  His  hand  insensibly  closes  upon 
the  wand  of  power.  With  a  spontaneous  joy,  he  bows  his  head  to 
receive  the  laurel,  and  God  is  thenceforth  forgottep. 

And  there  is  the  scholar,  shut  out  from  the  busy  excitements  of 
life,  careless  of  wealth,  and  not  over-anxious  for  honor,  "  whose  mind 
to  him  a  kingdom  is."  Are  there  any  peculiar  hindrances  in  the  way 
of  choosing  God's  service,  likely  to  grow  out  of  his  condition  ?  He 
has  a  cultivated  understanding,  ability  to  comprehend,  and  leisure 
to  digest  the  truth ;  "  His  labor  is  in  wisdom,  and  in  knowledge,  and 
in  equity."  He  has  learned  to  fortify  himself  by  the  power  of  philo'so-  , 
phy — is  not  this  a  good  stepping-stone  to  religion  ?  Alas !  it  is  made 
a  substitute  for  the  Gospel;  and  when  the  Spirit  of •  God  pleads 
with  his  soul,  he  falls  back  behind  the  stony  entrenchments  of  this 
philosophy,  and  so  cuts  off  all  communion  between  his  soul  and 
heaven. 

Another  difficulty  in  our  way  arises  out  of  the  existence  of  some 
secret  and  cherished  idol,  which  must  be  sacrificed  when  the  soul 
devotes  itself  to  God.  There  is  comparatively  little  difficulty  in 
making  the  surrender  which  Christ  requires,  until  this  favorite  pos- 
session is  touched.  Then  the  nerves  quiver,  and  the  heart  draws 
back  from  Jesus.  The  sinner  shrinks  from  the  threatened  lacera- 
tion. He  cannot  bear  the  torture  of  the  knife.  He  trembles  at  the 
thought  of  his  alienation  from  God ;  he  feels  his  sinfulness ;  he  longs 
for  peace  of  conscience  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost;  he  is  impelled 
by  a  power  that  is  almost  irresistible  to  go  and  lay  his  head  upon  the 
Saviour's  breast,  and  plead  with  Him  to  be  pardoned  and  to  be  loved ; 
and  yet  he  is  held  back — for  if  he  goes,  he  must  leave  the  object  of 


THE   IMPORTANT   CHOICE.  269 

his  idolatry  behind,  and  bid  farewell  to  it  forever.  He  reaches  the 
very  threshold  of  the  kingdom ;  another  step,  and  the  dividing  line 
would  be  passed ;  but  there  lies  in  his  way  one  rock  of  oifence  over 
which  he  stumbles,  and  the  gate  of  heaven  is  not  attained. 

Now,  it  is  this  fond  idol,  which  has  been  to  him  in  the  place  of 
God,  for  his  best  affections  have  centred  there ;  his  will  bus  pros- 
trated itself  before  this  shrine.  And  the  whole  question  of  his  sal- 
vation turns  upon  his  readiness  to  sacrifice  this  particular  object  of 
his  love.  It  may  be  considered  as  the  concrete  of  his  inward  depravity. 
It  may  have  its  root  in  the  passion  of  avarice  or  ambition  or  sensu- 
ality, or  it  may  be  grounded  upon  some  nobler  affection ;  it  docs  not 
matter  what  it  is,  so  long  as  it  sunders  the  creature  from  God.  Thev 
devotion  rendered  to  it  is  a  robbery  of  God,  giving  to  another  what 
belongs  to  Him. 

There  is  still  another  impediment  which  often  stands  in  the 
sinner's  way ;  and  that  is,  the  fact  that  he  is  called  to  mark  the  be- 
ginning of  his  Christian  life  by  a  public  and  formal  dedication  of 
himself  to  God.  After  all  other  difficulties  are  supposed  to  be  sur- 
mounted, here  the  individual  hesitates.  It  seems  a  formidable  thing 
to  come  out  before  the  world,  and  renounce  the  principles  by  which 
life  has  thus  far  been  guided.  It  is  an  open  confession  of  past  un- 
faithfulness. It  may  sunder  long-established  ties  of  friendship.  It 
may  expose  you  to  ridicule  and  reproach.  It  will  bring  you  into 
connection  with  those  whose  sympathies  and  associations  are  very 
diverse  from  your  own.  It  is  an  assumption  of  new  responsibilities. 
It  lays  you  under  peculiar  restrictions.  It  exposes  you  to  a  scrutiny 
which  otherwise  would  be  avoided.  The  mark  of  Christ  will  now  be 
upon  you,  and  you  will  be  expected  to  walk  answerably  to  your  Chris- 
tian calling.  You  must  hereafter  be  seen  no  more  in  the  place  of 
vain  amusement  and  noisy  revelry.  Your  speech  must  be  seasoned 
with  salt,  and  no  profane  or  careless  words  must  proceed  out  of  your 
mouth.  Your  unruly  temper  must  be  brought  into  subjection,  and 
railing  must  no  more  be  answered  with  railing.  Your  fellow-crea- 
tures, in  whatever  relations  they  may  stand  to  you,  inust  be  treated 
according  to  the  Christian  rule  of  love.  You  must  no  longer  be  over 
eager  after  earthly  gain,  but  hold  all  your  possessions  as  subject  to 
the  will  of  the  Lord.  To  take  the  final  step  which  involves  all  these 
consequences,  and  pledges  you  to  such  a  life,  is  indeed  a  serious 
thing.     Your  word,  once  passed,  can  never  be  retracted.     There  is 


270  THE   IMPORTANT   CHOICE. 

but  one  door  by  whicli  you  can  leave  the  churcb  of  Christ,  after  you 
once  enter  the  enclosure,  and  over  that  is  written,  ''anathema — 
maranatha ! " 

Various  and  serious,  then,  are  the  difficulties  which  tend  to  hold 
you  back  from  a  decision.  We  are  not  disposed  to  evade  or  under- 
value them.  We  would  prefer  that  you  should  distinctly  see  all  that 
must  be  encountered  in  choosing  the  service  of  God.  At  the  same 
time,  we  would  remind  you  that  none  of  these  difficulties  are  insur- 
mountable. Others  have  fought  their  way  through  all  the'  obstruc- 
tions of  Satan  to  eternal  life,  and  you  may  do  the  same. "  And  just 
remember  what  is  to  be  determined  by  your  decision.  Consider, 
seriously  and  patiently  the  dreadful  alternative,  if  you  allow  anything 
to  keep  you  at  a  distance  from  the  Saviour. 

What  is  the  interest  here  at  stake  ?  Your  salvation.  Salvation — 
from  what?  From  sin,  with  all  its  debasing  corruptions,  its  grind- 
ing tyranny,  its  remorseful  pains,  its  debilitating  influences,  and  its 
destructive  results.  Your  present  well-being  is  here  involved.  Un- 
checked by  grace,  that  incipient  lust  may  ripen  into  riotous  and 
ruinous  excess,  and  the  drunkard's  living  shame  or  the  suicide's  in- 
glorious grave  may  be  your.miserable  heritage.  The  youth  who  finds 
salvation  in  Christ,  and  is  early  sanctified  of  the  Spirit,  is  safe.  Who 
else  can  be  safe  in  such  a  world  as  this,  and  with  such  hearts  as  these 
lodged  within  us  ? 

But  is  this  all  ?     Is  there  no  other  salvation  than  this  ? 
"  There  is  a  death  whose  pang 
Outlasts  the  fleeting  breath." 

There  is  a  doom  which  reaches  both  soul  and  body,  whose  hopeless- 
ness and  dreariness  no  word  of  ours  can  picture ;  and  salvation  is 
deliverance  from  this  doom,  rescue  from  this  eternal  death.  When, 
therefore,  you  are  repelled  from  what  you  feel  to  be  your  duty  by 
thinking  of  the  hindrances  which  obstruct  you,  and  the  sacrifices 
which  must  be  made,  remember  also  what  lies  beyond.  And  let  the 
thought  of  a  heaven  to  be  gained  nerve  your  arm/with  strength,  and 
inspirit  you  for  the  contest. 


> 


■JF  I'iANDOLPE  MACON   C, 


272  THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF  ACCEPTANCE  "WITH   GOD. 

Gospel  being  to  quiet  tlie  fears  wticli  the  threatenings  of  the  law 
do  actually  awaken,  this  operation  and  effect  may  be  called  the  spirit 
of  adoption.  But  this  interpretation,  I  think,  may  be  safely  ignored, 
as  far  short  of  the  high  import  of  the  spiritual  teaching  of  the  Apos- 
tle, for  no  man  deferred  to  the  law  more  than  he.  He  relied  im- 
plicitly upon  his  obedience  to  both  the  moral  and  ceremonial  law,  as 
affording  him  the  only  ground  of  salvation.  "  As  touching  the  law," 
says  he,  "  /  loas  blameless."  Whatever,  then,  may  be  the  natural 
operation  of  the  law  upon  a  mind  which  looks  not  ta  it  merely  as  a 
rule  of  life,  but  to  his  obedience  to  it  as  the  procuring  cause  of  sal- 
vation, we  may  expect  to  see  exemplified  in  the  early  history  of  Paul. 
What,  then,  was  the  effect  upon  him?  Was  he  a  subject  of  servile 
fear  ?  Far  from  it.  For,  speaking  (Romans,  vii,  9)  of  that  period  in 
his  history  when  he  was  " without  the  law"  in  that  spiritual  import 
which  gives  it  a  direct  awakening  effect,  he  says  of  himself,  "  /  xcas 
alive"  in  that  state ;  I  had  no  idea  of  my  sin  and  danger.  With  the 
straight  edge  of  the  law  lying  to  my  crooked  path,  I  was  neverthe- 
less ignorant  of  the  obliquities  of  my  course !  I  really  thought  I 
was  doing  God  service,  while  I  was  actually  shedding  innocent  blood, 
in  utter  contempt  of  His  authority !  "  But  lohen  the  commandment 
came,  I  died  " — that  is,  "  when  my  pure  reason  was  so  enlightened 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  whose  office  it  is  '■  to  convince  the  world  of  sin,  of 
righteonsness,  and  of  a  judgment  to  come,'  that  I  had  a  clear  percep- 
tion and  just  discrimination  of  the  nature  and  relations  of  moral  law 
to  my  heart  and  conduct,  I  at  once  saw  and  felt  that  I  was  a  ruined 
sinner,  hastening  on  to  judgment  without  a  single  ray  of  hope.  'I 
died,'  to  all  the  former  quiet  of  my  mind.  I  saw  that  I  was  really 
dead,  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  and  only  awaited  the  act  of  the  execu- 
tioner to  complete  my  ruin."  '  Hence  the  bitter  lament :  "  0  wretched 
man  that  I  am!  who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death?" 
Here  was  slavish  fear,  indeed — the  bondage  of  a  chain,  which,  his 
own  unhappy  and  fruitless  experience  taught  him,  no  human  power 
could  break. 

Now,  we  know  that  the  law  is  not  defective  in  its  own  nature.  It 
is  ^'through  the  flesh"  only  that  it  is  ^^  loeah."  In  itself,  it  is  holy, 
just,  and  good.  Here,  then,  is  an  effect,  in  the  case  of  Paul,  not 
resulting  from  the  nature  of  the  law,  for  that  remained  the  same  that 
it  was  before  his  awakening — ^holy  the^^,  and  holy  noio  ;  nor  yet  re- 
sulting from  the  essential  nature  of  mind,  for  Paul's  mind  remained 


THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF  ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD.  273 

the  same  also ;  but,  as  tlie  context  shows,  an  effect  resulting  from  the 
direct  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit — so  enlightening,  and  thereby 
quickening  hispi<ye  reason — the  faculty  by  which  he  perceives  real 
abstract  truth,  and  discovers  its  relations  to  himself — that  he  per- 
ceives and  acknowledges  his  lost  and  ruined  condition,  and  /eels  all 
the  force  of  this  new  belief. 

Let  it  be  observed,  that  there  remains  to  man,  since  his  fall,  in 
common  with  his  fellow  animals,  the  capacity  to  take  in  all  ideas 
which  come  through  his  physical  senses.  Besides  this,  there  is  that 
measure  of  understanding,  or  capacity  to  perceive  and  assent  to  the 
nature  and  relations  of  these  ideas  to  himself  and  the  business  of  life, 
which  is  inseparable  from  the  existence  of  the  pure  reason,  and  which 
makes  him,  though  a,  fallen,  still  a  rational,  heing.  But  because  his 
pure  reason  is  no  longer  in  immediate  contact  with  the  Holy  Spirit, 
as  it  was  before  his  fall,  he  has,  by  nature,  no  clear  perception  of 
moral  good,  moral  heauti/,  and  moral  truth,  (our  classification  of  all 
pure  abstract  moral  ideas,)  and,  at  best,  only  a  dim,  shadowy  outline 
of  these  ideas.  Hence  he  does  not  discriminate  their  relations  to 
himself,  and  their  claims  upon  him.  Hence  he  does  not  believe  the 
teachings  of  the  law,  that  he  is  a  transgressor,  and  liable  to  death. 
And  as  he  does  not  believe  this,  he  does  not  (nor  can  he)  feel  the 
obligations  of  this  belief.  The  feeling  of  the  onght  or  the  ought  not  is 
not  present — that  is,  he  has  no  conscience  about  it.  Hence  his  will 
is  powerless,  touching  these  matters,  though  capacitated  for  freedom, 
because  it  is  not  supplied  with  the  antecedent  feeling  of  obligation, 
which  is  the  necessary  condition  of  volition,  or  condition  of  choosing 
by  election — a  condition  inherent  in  an  act  of  moral  freedom.  For, 
as  the  presence  of  two  individuals,  one  with  the  other,  is  a  necessai'y 
condition  of  their  holding  a  personal  conversation,  while  at  the  same 
time,  this  condition,  being  supplied,  does  not  compel  the  conversation 
they  hold  with  each  other ;  so  the  feeling  of  obligation  to  the  truth 
believed  (conscience)  is  a  necessary  condition  of  an  act  of  volition, 
or  an  act  electing  to  be  governed  by  this  obligation ;  whilst  at  the 
game  time,  this  condition,  being  supplied,  (conscience  being  present,) 
does  no  more  compel  the  volition  than,  in  the  former  case,  the  pres- 
ence of  the  parties  compels  the  conversation.  If  this  were  not  so, 
it  could  not  be  said  with  truth,  in  any  sense,  that  man  was  a  free  and 
accountable  being.  But,  although  it  is  true  that  he  is  constituted  a 
free  being  in  his  essential  mental  nature,  it  is  still  true  that,  in  his 
18 


274  THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF  ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD. 

entirely  fallen  state,  he  is  as  powerless  in  eflfecting  his  recovery  as  if 
he  were  not  constituted  for  mental  freedom ;  because,  in  his  fallen 
state,  he  is  so  far  deprived  of  the  presence  and  influence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  that  he  cannot  so  clearly  perceive  the  nature  and  claims  of  the 
moral  law,  as  to  be  able  to  believe  them.  Hence,  he  cannot  feel  his 
obligations  to  obey  them,  and  therefore  cannot  elect  (choose,  loith 
])pioer  not  to  choose)  to  be  governed  by  them.  If  he  does  not  so  elect, 
(and  he  cannot,)  he  performs  no  act  in  regard  to  them,  and  cannot 
be  saved  as  a  rational  being. 

No  marvel,  then,  that  (legal)  Paul,  who  was  but  partially  raised 
from  the  ruins  of  the  fall,  should  stumble,  with  the  lamp  of  truth 
before  him.  With  a  Jewish  Bible  in  his  hand,  he  was  yet  a  most 
flagrant  transgressor,  and  wholly  ignorant  of  the  fact — evidently  be- 
cause he  did  not  see  and  admit  the  claims  of  the  moral  law — ''■  he- 
cause  they,  seeing,  see  not;  and  hearing,  thcij  hear  not,  neither  do 
theij  understand."  (See  Matthew,  siii,  13,  and  Romans,  vii,  7 — 11.) 
Paul  did  not  see  that  obedience  to  the  ceremonial  was  not  obedience 
to  the  moral  law ;  nor  was  it  an  atonement  for  the  failure  ! 

But  God  has  not  left  man  in  this  entirely  helpless  state.  Christ 
has  certainly  redeemed  him  from  this  dreadful  curse  of  the  law  of 
Paradise,  and  placed  him  in  a  salvable  state  !  For  "  He  is  the  Light 
of  the  world— the  Light  that  enlighteneth  every  man  that  cometh  into 
the  world."  We  need  not  stay  to  inquire  into  the  philosophy  of 
atonement.  We  rely  on  the  great  Bible  truth,  that  the  vicarious 
sufi"erings  and  death  of  Christ  were  accepted  in  the  jurisprudence  of 
Heaven,  on  behalf  of  rebellious  man.  Grod  can  now  show  mercy  to 
man,  with  due  regard  to  the  claims  of  all  on  earth  and  in  heaven, 
which  before  He  could  not  do.  (Romans,  iii,  26.)  The  great  Medi- 
ator becomes  the  Light  of  the  world ;  for  He  not  only  is  the  author 
of  those  great  facts  which  embody  the  truths  of  revelation,  but  also 
enlightens  us  by  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  great'  abstract 
ideas  of  revelation  will  avail  nothing  to  man,  unless  he  shall  see  and 
understand  them.  The  ideas  he  gets  through  the  senses  of  seeing, 
hearing,  feeling,  tasting,  and  smelling,  form  in  him,  as  a  mere  fallen 
being,  the  chief  basis  of  his  mental  operations.  These  ideas,  (ex- 
ternal knowledge,)  and  the  use  which  his  mind  makes  of  them,  con- 
stitute the  carnal  ox  fleshly  mind — (Romans,  viii,  6,  l)— carnal,  be- 
cause the  source  of  these  ideas  is  the  senses,  and  the  end  of  all  the 
uses  to  which  the  mind  puts  these  ideas  is  the  gratification  of  these 


THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD.  275 

bodily  senses.  These  things  being  so,  in  his  fallen  state,  this  carnal 
mind  is  in  the  ascendant,  and  the  pure  reason  or  spiritual  mind — the 
power  by  which  it  was  designed  he  should  appreciate  pure  abstract 
ideas,  such  as  do  not  in  any  wise  come  through  his  senses — is  sub- 
ordinate. Hence,  he  is  strictly  a  selfish  being,  a  being  seeking  the 
gratification  of  his  sensual  nature.  The  claims  of  God  as  a  holy  and 
just  being,  the  claims  of  his  own  spiritual  nature,  and  similar 
claims  of  his  fellow  men,  are  not  perceived,  and  hence  cannot  be 
appreciated  by  him.     The  result  we  see  in  the  case  of  (legal)  Paul. 

But  the  remedy  of  atonement  is  direct.  The  Spirit — that  Holy 
Spirit  which  abandoned  him  in  the  moment  of  his  great  transgres- 
sion— is  restored  to  him  in  redemption ;  and,  in  a  measure,  in  the 
moment  of  that  redemption.  For  the  same  atonement  which  an- 
nounced the  truth,  "the  seed  of  the  looman  shall  bruise  the  serpent's 
head,"  conferred  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  upou  the  first  pair.  Their 
reason  was  enlightened.  They  then  perceived  the  broad  spiritual 
truths  contained  in  the  promise,  and,  we  may  charitably  hope,  were 
saved  by  faith  in  Christ,  who  was  the  essence  of  that  promise.  But 
this  promise,  together  with  this  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  was  not  to 
Adam  alone,  but  to  all  his  posterity.  And  all  the  thousands,  in  every 
age,  savage  as  well  as  civilized,  who  have  gone  to  heaven,  were  saved 
by  some  of  the  forms  of  abstract  truth  furnished  by  the  atonement, 
such  as  were  appropriate  to  the  dispensation  under  which  the  provi- 
dence of  God  placed  them,  and  by  such  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
as  was  necessary  to  enable  them  to  perceive  and  appreciate  the  claims 
of  these  truths.  Hence  they  were  saved  by  the  atonement  of  Christ, 
the  only  name  given  under  heaven  whereby  sinners  can  be  saved. 

This  atonement  is  unconditional,  up  to  a  certain  limit;  but  beyond 
that  limit,  in  the  case  of  every  accountable  being,  it  is  wholly  condi- 
tional. The  benefits  of  atonement,  in  the  form  of  such  truths  as  are 
appropriate  to  his  dispensation,  and  that  measure  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
necessary  to  enable  him  to  appreciate  the  claims  of  these  truths,  and 
thereby  awaken  in  him  a  conscience  in  regard  to  them,  or  feeling  of 
obligation  to  choose  them  and  be  governed  by  them,  arc  uncondi- 
tionally given.  All  the  benefits  of  atonement  beyond  these  limits 
are  conditionally  given. 

The  great  condition  which  runs  through  the  whole  scheme  of 
human  redemption  is,  not  belief  or  rep>entancc,  in  the  common  ac- 
ceptation of  it,  but/atV/i,  and  such/aiVA  jis  implies  belief;  and  that 


276  THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD. 

faith,  in  Christ  directly  in  the  case  of  all  those  to  whom  He  is 
preached,  and  faith  in  Christ  indirectly,  because  constructively,  in 
the  case  of  all  those  to  whom  He  is  not  preached.  Faith,  then,  is 
the  great  Gospel  condition.  I  say,  not  mere  helicf,  or  mere  repent- 
ance, however  sincere,  hut  faith  in  Christ. 

Belief  im^  faith  are  sometimes  used  interchangeably  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. Belief  is,  also  sometimes  used  to  express  both  faith  and  belief, 
^aut  faith  is  rarely  ever  used  for  mere  helief  They  are  terms,  how- 
ever, which  differ  widely  from  each  other  in  meaning;.  One  js  an 
act  of  the  jndff77ie7it ;  the  other  is  an  act  of  the  zoill.  No  two  mental 
states  are  more  distinctly  marked  than  these.  Belief  is  the  assent  of 
the  judgment  that  the  truths  presented  are  truths,  and  the  assent  of 
the  judgment  to  the  claims  of  these  truths.  Such  belief  in  the  case 
of  any  truth  whatever,  claiming  to  control  our  action,  is  always  fol- 
lowed by  conscience,  or  the  feeling  of  obligation  to  obey.  This  is  its 
uniform  consequent. 

The  case  in  which  the  judgment  assents  fully  to  the  claims  of 
truth,  and  yet  the  man  feels  no  obligation  to  obey,  would  argue  an 
abnormal  state  of  mind,  the  result  of  either  derangement,  or  the 
wasting  effects  of  that  form  of  grace  abused,  in  which  a  man  ulti- 
mately "  believes  a  lie,  that  he  may  he  damned.''  But  I  speak  of  the 
operations  of  the  mind  in  its  normal  state.  The  man  who  stops  in 
this  mere  belief  and  its  effects,  whether  he  be  savage  or  civilized, 
stops  short  of  salvation. 

Now  faith,  indeed,  implies  all  this.  It  could  not  arise  without 
these  antecedent  mental  states.  But,  in  itself,  it  is  very  different 
from  each  of  these  states.  It  is  an  act  of  the  loill.  It  is  volition — 
volition  in  the  form  of  choice,  trust,  or  reliance.  Any  truth  whatever, 
assented  to  by  the  understanding,  is  a  truth  believed.  If  it  be  a  moral 
truth,  it  is  uniformly  followed  by  the  feeling  of  obligation  to  obey. 
This  feeling-^  furnishes  an  occasion  for  faith.  When  the  will  puts 
forth  a  volition,  choosing  or  electing  to  obey  this  feeling,  instead  of 
some  antagonistic  feeling,  it  exercises  an  act  of  faith  or  trust  in  the 
truth  believed. 

Therefore  Socrates,  and  all  like  him,  to  wliom  Christ  was  never 
preached,  if  saved,  (ais  I  suppose  them  to  be,)  were  saved  by  a  faith 
implying  this  antecedent  belief  in  truths  peculiar  to  the  dispensation 
under  which  God  placed  them,  and  constructively,  as  already  re- 
marked, by  faith  in  Christ,    And  so  of  Paul ;  he  was  saved  by  faith — 


THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD.  277 

faith  directly  in  Christ.  That  Christ  is  the  Saviour  of  sinners  was, 
as  it  still  is,  the  great  truth  of  the  dispensation  under  which  he  lived. 
He  not  only  believed  this  great  truth,  but  trusted  in  it,  by  electing 
to  obey  all  the  obligations  its  belief  imposed,  and  hence  was  saved 
directly  by  faith  in  Christ. 

Again  I  say,  hy  faith  in  Christ,  and  not  mcrchj  by  rc^ycntance.  I 
confess  to  much  painful  misgiving  of  mind  as  to  the  teaching  of  the 
present  day  on  the  subject  of  salvation  by  repentance  and  faitli  !  Ac- 
cording to  much  that  is  heard  from  the  pulpit,  a  man  has  but  little 
use  for  hflief,  and  certainly  none  for  faith,  and  especially /a <V/i  in 
Christ,  until,  by  some  means,  he  becomes  a  true  penitent,  earnestly 
seeking  salvation !  I  dissent  from  all  this.  The  teachers  in  ques- 
tion are  sentimentally  right,  no  doubt;  but  they  strangely  err  in 
much  they  say,  whether  we  test  them  by  the  standards  of  Method- 
ism, the  teachings  of  the  Bible,  or  the  facts  of  mental  nature. 

The  only  true  ground  seems  to  me  to  be  this :  We  are  saved  by 
faith,  andycfiV/i  aJone  in  Christ,  from  first  to  last.  We  have  to  do 
only  with  saving  faith.  No  faith  is  saving  but  faith  in  Christ.  Noth- 
ing less  than  this  can  bring  a  carnal  sinner  into  the  state  of  true  re- 
pentance, and  this  same  saving  faith — not  another  faith,  or  another 
degree  of  it,  or  anything  of  the  kind,  but  this  same  saving  faith  in 
Christ — is  necessary  to  bring  him  from  that  state  of  bondage  indi- 
cated by  repentance^  into  a  state  of  acceptance  with  ,God.  Let  us 
analyze  the  mental  process  in  this  work. 

Here  is  a  carnal  man,  not  so  apparently  a  disbeliever  as  that  he  is 
no  believer.  This  great  truth,  the  sum  of  all  Bible  truth,  is  brought, 
no  matter  by  what  agency,  before  his  mind,  namely :  "  God  so  loved 
the  tcorld  that  He  gave  His  only-hegotten  Son,  that  lohosoever  helieveth 
in  Ilini  should  not  perish,  hut  have  everlasting  life." 

Now,  observe :  He  is  carnal,  living  for  the  gratification  of  his 
senses  only;  and  therefore,  living  regardless  of  the  will  of  God,  his 
rightful  sovereign,  he  is  a  lost  sinner,  hastening  to  eternal  death. 
Upon  these  facts  turns  the  manifestation  of  the  great  love  here  pro- 
claimed. Of  course,  his  mind,  in  the  nature  of  things,  must  cognize 
these  facts,  before  he  can  be  prepared  to  appreciate,  in  the  least 
defp'ee,  the  benefits  of  this  gracious  ofi'er.  Now,  we  know  that  re- 
pentance is  a  necessity  in  salvation;  that  is,  he  vavi^t fixedJij — sin- 
cerehj,  if  you  like  the  term  better — in  the  purposes  of  his  mind,  turn 
away  from  his  sins,  and  turn  to  God ;  for  to  do  the  one  is  to  do  the 


278  THE    KNOWLEDGE    OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD. 

other.  Unless  lie  thvis  repent,  lie  will  surely  perish,  because,  in  that 
ease,,  he  can  never  participate  in  the  benefits  of  this  gift.  But 
wedded  to  sin,  as  he  is,  by  affinity  and  by  habit,  is  it  even  conceiva- 
ble that  he  ever  can  (not  to  say  wlU)  put  forth  a  fixed  volition  or 
determination  to  sin  no  more,  unless  his  judgment  fully  assent  to  or 
believe  the  great  truths  which  define  his  present  state,  and  his  con- 
science be  fully  awakened,  deeply  to  feel  his  obligations  to  obey  all 
the  duties  to  which  the  belief  of  these  truths  commits  him  ?  Im- 
possible, in  the  very  nature  of  things  ! 

He  then  must  believe,  _/??'s^,  that  he  is  a  sinner  against  an  infi- 
nitely just  and  holy  God;  secondly,  that  sin,  in  itself,  is. exceedingly 
evil,  most  justly  exposing  him  to  the  present  displeasure  and  the 
final  judgment  of  Almighty  God;  and  third Ji/,  he  must  so  believe 
these  truths,  personal  to  himself,  that  his  conscience  deeply  feels  the 
obligation  under  which  the  belief  of  these  truths  personally  lays 
him.  This  last,  we  know,  will  always  be  in  the  ratio  in  which'  the 
former  two  are  believed.  If  the  first  and  second  are  fully  believed — 
believed  without  doubting — the  obligations  of  conscience  touching 
these  points  will  be  fully  felt.  If  they  are  not  so  felt,  I  say  it  is  not 
possible  that  a  selfish  being,  wedded  to  sin,  can  put  forth  a  volition 
to  forsake  it ;  but  when  they  are  so  felt,  the  great  condition  is  sup- 
plied to  the  will,  by  which  it  may  put  forth  the  volition  to  be  gov- 
erned by  these  ohligations — that  is,  forsake  his  sins;  and  yet,  so  as 
not  to  comjjcl  the  will  to  this  act  of  volition,  as  the  philosophy  of 
Edwards  vainly  teaches. 

Here  the  question  arises,  How  is  he  so  to  believe  these  personal 
facts  as  to  produce  the  conscience  necessary  to  such  a  mental  act  of 
elective  choice,  or  trust,  in  the  truths  belie\*d,  as  constitutes  a  fixed 
purpose  to  forsake  sin  ?  This'  question  is  raised  to  meet  one  point 
only.  That  this  man's  mind  could  never  rise,  unaided,  to  those 
■purely  abstract  ideas — that  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  indis- 
pensable to  illuminate  his  reason,  and  thereby  crane  up  his  judgment, 
by  bringing  these  high  abstractions  within  the  compass  of  his  fallen 
capacity — are  cardinal  points  in  our  theology,  and,  as  between  myself 
and  the  reader,  are  assumed  to  be  understood  and  admitted.  But 
when  we  undertake  to  induce  this  belief,  which  it  is  the  design  of 
all  preaching  to  do,  by  aad  with  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which 
we  suppose  to  be  supplied,  how  shall  either  tve  or  the  Holy  Sjm-it,  or 
both  together,  efi'ect  the  proposed  design,  in  harmony  with  the  laws 


THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD.  279 

of  mind  ?  Why,  certainly,  by  presenting  these  facts  as  they  really 
are.  But  what  are  these  facts  ?  They  are,  that  sin  in  itself  is  so 
exceedingly  evil,  that  in  the  mind  of  the  all-wise  God^  who  could  not 
fail  to  know  the  truth  in  this  case,  nothing  but  the  incarnation  of 
His  only-begotten  Son,  and  that  life  of  extreme  suffering,  and  that 
vicarious  death,  recorded  of  Him  in  the  Bible,  could  make  it  possible 
for  Him  to  forgive  and  save  a  guilty  sinner,  without  the  grossest  in- 
justice to  all  His  unsinuiug  family,  whether  on  earth  or  in  heaven  ! 
Yet  still,  great  as  were  the  difficulties  to  be  overcome — perilous  as  was 
the  sacrifice — so  great  was  His  love  to  a  world  of  sinners,  that  He 
did  not  hesitate — He  passed  at  once  all  those  bounds,  and  in  the 
fullness  of  His  love  lie  gave  His  only -begotten  >Son  !  Now,  I  say, 
these  are  \he  facts,  and  that  no  man  eve?'  did,  and  that  no  man  ever 
can,  assent,  in  his  judgment,  to  the  real  evil  of  sin,  until  he  j^erceives 
and  assents  to  these  truths ;  or,  in  other  words,  until  he  believes  in 
the  atonement  of  Christ !  It  matters  little  who  is  the  agent,  able  to 
produce  in  a  man  the  belief  that  he  is  a  sinner,  so  as  to  bring  about  trtie 
repentance — he  can  never  succeed,  if  he  leave  out  the  Cross  of  Christ ! 
His  own  heart  may  glow  as  he  describes  the  astonishing  goodness 
of  Grod  in  the  wise  ai'rangements  of  nature,  the  singular  adjustments 
of  providence,  the  amazing  provisions  of  grace.  Poets  may  sing  of 
these  themes,  as  they  have  done,  and  the  heart  may  wail  under  the 
sweet  tones  of  their  lyre,  but  all  this  is  short  of  our  mark !  "We 
would  cause  the  mind  to  assent  to  the  fact,  that  sin  is  not  the  mere 
imj)rudenf,  itnioise  thing,  these  ideas  show  it  to  be,  but  that,  ?'?i  itself, 
it  is  the  reed  damning  evil  the  Scriptures  represent  it  to  be  !  But  the 
mind  icill  not,  the  mind  cannot,  yield  its  assent  to  this  flxct,  until  it 
sees  the  f\ict;  and  this  fact  is  nowhere  to  be  seen,  in  the  whole  com- 
pass of  human  thinking,  hut  in  the  infinite  love  of  God,  as  disj^lai/ed 
■in  the  atonement  hy  Christ !  The  preacher  who  delays — as  many,  I 
fear,  actually  do — to  offer  Christ  until  he  has  need  to  comfort  a  des- 
ponding penitent,  has  misinterpreted  an  important  part  of  his  mes- 
sage !  He  needs  the  atonement,  the  Cross — as  much  to  make  men 
penitents,  as  to  comfort  them  when  they  are  penitent. 

Another  question  arises  here :  Is  this  full  assent  or  belief  in  the 
true  evil  of  sin  producing,  as  it  cannot  fail  to  do,  that  deep  feeling 
of  obligation  we  call  conscience,  whose  voice  in  this  case  is,  '■'■  I  ought 
to  hate  sin — /  ought  to  turn  from  it  and  unto  God  " — accompanied 
by  more  or  less  of  regret,  sorrow,  remorse,  and  the  like — is  this  re- 


280  THE    KNOWLEDGE   OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD. 

pentance,  or  does  it  necessarily  result  in  rejyenfance  ?  I  answer,  No  I 
There  is  no  faith  in  it.  As  yet,  it  is  raere  belief — correct  belief,  it  is 
true,  because  it  embodies  the  atonement;  and  both  in  itself,  and  in 
the  effects  it  produces — an  enlightened  conscience — it  supplies  an 
indispensable  condition  of  repentance.  But  because  there  is  yet  no 
faith,  the  true  saving  clement,  so  far  as  the  voluntary  agency  of  man 
is  concerned,  is  still  wanting.  'Now,  faith  is  the  act  of  the  ^oill — not 
the  mere  act  of  the  judgment,  as  is  belief  but  the  act  of  the  7cill,  a 
volition,  choosing,  consenting  to  or  trusting  in,  (take  which  you 
please,)  by  an  act  of  election,  (that  is,  choosing  with  liberty  not  to 
choose — the  only  true  idea  of  freedom,)  the  truths  assented  to,  with 
all  the  obligations  of  conscience.  Until  this  is  done,  it  is  clear,  there 
is  no  turning  from  sin — no  fixed  purpose  (for  this  only  is  the  pur- 
pose) to  turn  from  sin,  and  hence  no  repentance — for  nothing  else 
but  this  fixed  purpose  to  turn  from  sin  and  unto  God  is  repentance. 
But  can  a  man  go  so  far  as  to  believe  and  feel  all  the  obligations 
of  conscience,  and  still  stop  short  of  repentance  ?  Undoubtedly  he 
can,  unless  he  be  a  mere  machine,  as  well  as  a  fallen  being.  Having 
yielded  the  assent  of  his  judgment  to  truths,  which  another  displayed 
to  his  mind — an  assent  which,  in  given  circumstances,  he  could  not 
prevent — and  having  felt  the  obligations  of  that  conscience,  which 
these  admitted  truths  awakened  by  a  law  of  his  mind  equally  beyond 
his  control :  now,  if  he  must  necessarily  go  forward  and  give  the 
consent  of  his  will — that  is,  exercise  faith — then  is  he  a  mere  ma- 
chine,  and.  no  more  an  accountable  being  than  is  the  clock  which 
strikes  the  hour  it  was  set  to  strike !  But  who  dare  affirm  this  ?  None ! 
Then  I  offend  none  in  asserting  its  contradictory. 

Very  little  observation  of  mental  states  will  exemplify  these  views. 
Numerous  examples  teach  us  that  men  perceive  the  whole  truth  re- 
lating to  them  as  sinners,  displayed  in  the  atonement;  that  they  feel 
the  monitions  of  conscience  touching  these  truths — aye !  hear  its 
thunder  tones,  as  the  roar  of  the  cataract  of  death,  and  feel  their 
souls  within  to  be  rocking  as  a  ship  in  a  tempest;  and  yet  it  is  dis- 
tinctly traceable,  that  there  underlies  all  these  necessary  beliefs,  and 
their  consequent  emotions,  a  stubborn,  unyielding  u-ill,  which  (secret- 
ly) refuses  to  submit,  and  chooses  the  present  gratification  of  sense, 
with  only  the  vague  and  indefinite  purpose,  that  ''at  a  eonvcnicnf 
season"  they  will  yield  the  obedience  now  so  urgently  demanded.  The 
Holy  Spirit  is  grieved.     He  withdraws  from  the  mind.     The  active 


THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD.  281 

assent  of  the  judgment  is  abated.  The  feelings  of  obligation  subside, 
and  the  thoughts  soon  take  the  smooth  current  of  business  or  of 
pleasure,  as  before.  lie  onaj/  return  again  and  again,  but  if  with  the 
same  fruitless  effect,  He  leaves  to  return  no  more;  and  the  necessity 
which  the  man's  own  folly  has  brought  upon  him,  to  believe  a  lie, 
and  be  damned,  is  all  that  awaits  him  ! 

But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  he  does  what  he  is  abundantly  able  to 
do,  by  all  these  supplied  conditions  of  volitive  action — that  is,  if  he 
exercise  faith  in  the  truths  he  has  been  made  to  believe  and  feel  in 
the  form  of  conscience — he  puts  forth  an  act  of  volition,  he  chooses 
to  adopt  those  truths,  to  rely  on  them,  and  to  be  governed  by  the 
obligations  of  conscience  in  regard  to  them.  That  is,  he  resolves  to 
forsake  his  sins,  and  to  consecrate  himself  to  God,  and  he  is  there- 
fore, on  the  ground  of  this  fact  alone,  a  true  penitent. 

Now,  it  is  precisely  at  this  point  that  the  state  of  bondage,  brought 
to  view  in  our  text,  begins.  That  is,  when  he  has  both  belief  and 
faith  in  the  broad  doctrine  of  atonement  by  Christ,  so  far  as  it  ap- 
plies to  him  as  an  unrepentant  sinner,  a  consciousness  of  Ids  bondage 
to  sin  commences.  He  has  been  all  his  life  in  this  bondage,  but  he 
was  never  conscious  of  the  fact  until  now.  Experience  makes  him 
conscious.  "  ^o  wiU"  (to  purpose)  ^^  is  present  with  Mm."  (Acts, 
vii,  18.)  His  resolution  is  decided  to  put  away  his  sins,  and  to  live 
a  life  of  pure  devotion  to  God.  He  enters  upon  his  new  career  with 
confidence  of  success.  When  stung  by  remorse  of  conscience,  that 
he  had  lived  regardless  of  those  truths  he  now  so  clearly  believes, 
he  naturally  thought  it  only  remained  for  him  to  determine  to  obey 
the  obligations  of  these  truths,  and  he  would  at  once  place  himself 
right  before  God  !  But  alas,  how  disappointed  !  He  has  deliberately 
elected  (an  act  of  faith)  to  obey  all  these  obligations.  He  is  honest. 
He  does  riot  for  a  moment  doubt  this.  Still  his  mind  cleaves,  of 
course,  to  existing  beliefs:  ''God  is  just.  I  deserve  no  mercy!" 
For  a  time  he  wonders  that  no  change  has  followed  his  decision. 
But  so  it  is ;  he  feels  himself  to  be  the  same  ungrateful  sinner  as 
before  !  He  thinks — he  reasons  !  He  trembles  and  prays  !  Still 
no  change  comes.  "  God  is  just.  God  is  angry  with  me.  I  deserve 
it  all."  As  before,  conscience  stung  him  with  these  thoughts ;  so 
still  these  ideas  prevail  in  his  mind,  no  less  than  before  his  resolu- 
tion was  taken.  He  casts  about  for  reasons  why  there  is  no  change. 
He  falls  naturally  upon  the  fallacy  that  he  does  not  feel  enough  ! 


282  THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD. 

He  tries  to  feel  more.  But  as  no  effect  follows  his  oft-repeated  ef- 
forts, lie  falls  at  once  into  the  error — "  I  do  not  feel  at  all ! "  He 
doubts  his  belief — doubts,  it  may  be,  all  hellcf — doubts  his  sincerity ! 
Fear  entered  largely  as  an  element  in  that  remorse  of  conscience 
which  first  sprung  from  his  belief  of  the  great  fact  of  atonement. 
The  natural  demands  made  by  this  belief,  that  he  obey  the  obliga- 
tions of  conscience,  afforded  him  hope  that  obedience  would  be  fol- 
lowed by  immediate  relief.  But  he  has  tried  it,  and  utterly  failed  I 
His  fears  revive.  They  rise  upon  him  like  an  awned  man !  His 
mind  verges  on  despair!  "  0  icrctclicd  man  tliat  I  am!  -what  shall 
I  do  ! "     This  is  hondage  to  sin,  homlage  to  sin  and  to  fear,  indeed ! 

This  mental  state  is  subject  to  great  modifications.  All  true  pen- 
itents do  not  by  any  means  realize  the  same  type  of  emotion.  In 
some,  the  feeling  resulting  from  the  same  beliefs  is  far  more  intense 
than  in  others.  One,  highly  excitable  in  temperament,  will  suffer 
much  more  acutely  from  the  same  mental  causes,  than  another  who 
is  less  so.  And  then,  again,  education  and  general  habits, of  thought 
and  belief  will  go  f:ir  to  modify  these  results.  One,  educated  from 
early  life  in  correct  views  of  the  atonement,  and  whose  habits  of 
thought  make  him  speculatively  familiar  with  its  distinctive  features, 
.will  not  be  so  liable  to  despair  (whatever  his  temperament  may  be) 
as  another,-  whose  views  are  necessarily  limited  by  those  features' 
■  only  of  atonement  which  define  his  condition  as  a  sinner — which,  to  a 
great  extent,  is  necessarily  the  case  with  a  mind  without  antecedent 
instruction.  In  the  first  case,  however,  other  features  of  atonement 
would  frequently  occur  to  his  mind,  and  better  sustain  his  hope — he 
would  fear,  but  not  without  hope.  But  however  this  may  be,  the 
mental  state  of  every  tnic  but  unpardoned  penitent  is  one  of  bondage 
to  sin  and  hondage  to  fear !    • 

Now,  if  we  trace  this  state  back  to  its  souree,  we  shall  find  that  it 
does  not  result  from  any  change  either  in  the  lavj,  which  is  a  source 
of  so  much  terror  to  him;  nor  yet  in  his  own  mind,  which  is  so  per- 
plexed and  tortured.  Each  of  these  is,  in  its  essential  nature,  just 
what  it  was  before.  The  immediate  cause  to  him  is  consciousness.  lie 
is  now  conscious  of  a  state  of  facts,  of  which  befoi'e  he  was  unconscious. 
But  there  is  a  mediate  cause,  which  lies  back  of  this  consciousness — 
the  immediate  or  producing  cause  of  this  consciousness  that  he  is  a 
lost  and  ruined  sinner.  It  is  the  gift  of  atonement — the  Hohj  Sjn'rit, 
sent  from  God  to  convince  the  world  of  sin. 


THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD.  283 

la  no  otlier  way  can  we  possibly  account  for  the  mental  state  of 
true  repentance.  For  if  he  who  comj^eh  me  to  do  a  thing  is  the 
cause  of  my  doing  it,  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  so  brings  revealed  truth 
to  the  mind  of  a  sinner  that  from  the  very  nature  of  his  mind  he 
cannot  avoid  (if  he  yield  his  attention)  helieving  what  he  thus  clearly 
sees,  is  the  cause  of  Ids  Jjelieving.  And  as  he  who  enables  me  to  do  a 
thing,  but  does  not  compel  me  to  do  it,  (leaving  me  free  not  to  do 
it,)  is  in  a  ^ood  sense  also  the  cause  of  my  doing  it,  the  Holy  Spirit, 
who,  by  thus  awakening  heUef  and  conscience  in  a  sinner,  supplies 
the  condition  necessary  to  enable  him  to  put  forth  that  act  of  volition 
which  we  call  faith  or  trust,  is  the  cause  of  his  faith,  and  hence  is 
the  active  cause  of  his  repentance. 

The  penitent  may  not  cognize  this  state  as  the  fruit,  in  any  proper 
sense,  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Men  educated  in  religious  sentiments 
only,  and  accustomed  to  speculate  on  the  subject  morfe  as  a  system  of 
morals  than  a  scheme  of  spiritual  life,  are  apt  to  attribute  repent- 
.ance  to  the  unaided  operation  of  their  own  minds.  Nevertheless, 
it  is  the  fruit  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  none  admit  it  more  readily  and 
maintain  it  more  confidently  than  they  do  after  reading  the  Bible 
with  the  advantage  of  their  own  experience.  But  the  uncultivated, 
who  think  but  little  on  the  subject,  and  to  whom  an  awakening  is  a 
startling  novelty,  will  readily  assign  it  to  a  supernatural  cause,  or  to 
some  secondary  cause,  such  as  hair-breadth  escapes,  occurrence  of 
death,  a  book  or  sermon,  or  something  of  the  kind— just  according  to 
the  idea  that  prevails  at  the  time.  But  all  true  penitents  alike  soon 
learn  that  it  is  the  Holi/  Spirit  alone  that  convinces  of  sin. 

The  Spirit  brings  such  truths  before  his  mind  as  are  appropriate 
to  his  case,  and  in  such  way  as  enables  him  to  perceive  and  thereby 
believe  and  feel  the  truth ;  and  this  He  does,  in  regard  to  truths  re- 
vealed in  the  Bible,  and  nothing  beyond.  Now,  if  a  man  go  into 
court,  and  so  bring  certain  truths  before  the  minds  of  an  attentive 
jury  that  they  see  the  harmony  of  facts  and  principles  so  clearly 
that  they  cannot  avoid  yielding  the  assent  of  their  judgments  to  his 
statements,  toe  call  him  a  witness,  and  his  statements  testimony/.  Why 
need  we  scruple,  then,  to  call  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  this  case,  a  u-itness, 
and  His  v:ork  testimony  ! 

The  truth  is,  the  sinner  in  bondage  to  fear  has  the  direct  witness 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  he  is  an  enslaved  sinner ;  and  this  testimony 
is  confirmed  to  him  by  the  witness  of  his  oion  spirit;  that  is,  he  has 


284  THE   KNOWLEDGE   OP  ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD. 

his  otcn  conscioKsness  that  he  believes  and  experiences  the  fact  that 
he  is  a  helpless  sinner. 

Now,  Paul  reminds  the  Roman  Christians  that  this  was  once  their 
state,  and  that  they  are  not  now  in  that  state  again,  but  "  have  re- 
ceived the  spirit  of  adopt  ion,  loherehy  we  cry,  Abba,  Father.'^ 

The  import  of  these  words  in  their  connection  is  very  obvious. 
"  As  the  Holy  Spirit  was  once  a  witness  to  you  that  you  were  un- 
pardoned sinners,  so,  in  the  very  same  way,  He  is  now  a  witness  to  you 
that  you  are  adopted  into  His  family;  and,  in  virtse  of  your  confi- 
dence ox  faith  in  the  fact,  you  rejoice  in  the  relation  of  sons,  sajnng, 
'  My  Father,  My  Father  ! ' "  But  how  so  ?  Plainly  thus :  The 
man  already  brought  to  see  his  ruined  and  helpless  state  is  in  a  con- 
dition to  see  and  appreciate  another  truth,  (not  to  exercise  a  higher 
faith,  as  some  suppose;  for  this  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  do,  in  the 
nature  of  things,)  but  to  exercise  the  same  belief 'va  kind,  and  the  same 
faith  in  kind,  in  another  truth,  as  appropriate  to  him  now,  as  the 
truths  before  believed  were  appropriate  to  him  then.  Thus,  this 
great  truth — "  God  icas  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  icorld  unto  Him- 
self"— "through  His  name  is  preached  the  forgiveness  of  sin" — "he 
that  believeth  in  Hinn  shall  not  perish,  hit  have  everlasting  life  " — the 
.great  truth  which  runs  through  these  and  all  similar  sayings  of  .the 
Scriptures,  is  presented  to  his  mind  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  Before  his' 
'penitence,  he  could  no  more  appreciate  this  truth,  than  a  child  who 
was  never  sick  could  value  the  skill  of  a  physician  in' a  sick  room  ! 
And  now.  that  he  is  penitent,  (that  is,  sick,)  he  is  too  much  engrossed 
with  his  sorrows,  too  much  alive  to  the  justice  of  the  sentence  which 
has  gone  forth  against  him,  to  listen  to  any  terms  of  pardon.  Hear 
him,  as  he  looks  up  to  the  Cross,  and  reads  its  lessons  of  the  deep  de- 
merit of  his  sins :  "  Pardon — pardon  such  a  sinner  as  I  ?  Absurdity — 
absurdity !  How  can  God  forgive  me,  when  I  never  can  fprgive  my- 
self for  having  sinned  so  long  and  so  much,  against  infinite  love  and 
mercy  ?  Impossible — impossible  ! "  Yet  in  such  a  state  his  mind 
is  called  to  deal  with  the  highest  of  all  abstract  truths,  the  profound- 
est  of  all  metaphysics,  the  deepest  of  all  mysteries — angels  only  de- 
sire to  look  into  it !  and  still  from  the  point  which  this  man  occu- 
pies it  is  the  most  simple  and  the  most  appreciable  of  all  truths,  if 
he  can  only  be  induced >to  turn  his  desponding  mind  upon  it!  But 
who  is  equal  to  the  great  task  of  breaking  the  spell  by  which  selfish 
fear  enchants  him  ?     You  and  I  may  as  soon  think  to  stanch  the 


THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD.  285 

flood  of  grief  that  wells  up  from  the  wailing  heart  of  the  young 
mother,  as  she  catches  the  last  imploring  look  of  her  babe,  snatched 
by  the  hand  of  death  from  her  warm  bosom  !  But,  thank  God,  there 
is  One  who  is  equal  to  this  great  work — the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Spirit 
of  God  !  He  takes  the  "  deep  things  of  God,  and  shows  them  to  the 
mind  of  this  man."  He  presents  this  great  truth  to  his  mind,  just 
as  it  is,  exactly  suited  to  his  lost  and  ruined  state.  He  sees  its  con- 
sistency, harmony,  and  perfect  adaptedness  to  his  case — its  truth.  Is 
belief  the  assent  of  the  judgment?  Then  he  believes.  He  could 
no  more  withold  his  assent  from  this,  than  he  could  from  the  plain- 
est truth  in  the  world.  He  believes — there  is  nothing  voluntary  in 
his  believing  in  these  circumstances — he  knows  that  to  him,  as  though 
there  was  not  another  sinner  on  earth,  a  free  and  full  pardon  is 
offered  through  the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ.  This  belief,  like  any 
other  act  of  belief  in  moral  truth,  is  followed  by  its  appropriate  feel- 
mg  of  obligation,  or  conscience.  There  springs  up  at  once  a  profound 
emotion  of  duty  to  obey  all  the  obligations  of  this  belief,  accept  all 
its  terrns.  Every  condition  is  now  supplied  to  his  voluntary  power, 
his  will,  for  its  free  act  of  volition,  its  act  of  election  (call  it  choice, 
trust,  acceptance,  or  the  like,  it  comes  to  the  same  thing)  of  Christ, 
on  the  terms  of  the  offer  believed  to  be  made.  Is  faith  such  an  act 
of  the  will?  Then  the  Komans  exercised  faith.  But  in  the  moment 
they  made  this  election  of  Christ  instead  of  the  demands  of  the  car- 
nal mind,  asking  release  from  His  yoke,  they  were  justified,  for  "he 
that  hclieveth  (has  faith)  is  Justified  from  all  things  from  lohieh  lie 
could  not  he  justified  hy  the  ivorks  of  the  law." 

But  what  is  justification?  It  is  pardon.  What  is  pardon?  A 
remission  of  the  penalty  of  our  sins.  What  is  the  penalty  thus  re- 
mitted ?  Jehovah's  displeasure,  in  the  various  forms  in  which  He 
manifests  it  in  this  life,  and  will  display  it  through  all  eternity!  But 
"  God  only  can  forgive  sin."  Such  remission,  then,  is  a  special  act 
of  the  divine  mind.  But,  "the  things  of  God,  Icnoiccth  no  man,  (1 
Corinthians,  ii,  11,)  no,  not  even  the  Son  of  man  ! "  No  man,  then, 
can  be  cognizant  of  this  act  of  the  divine  mind.  And  yet  the  per- 
sons in  question  must  trustingly  believe  that  this  act  has  passed  in 
their  favor ;  or,  from  the  very  nature  of  mind  itself,  they  can  never 
realize  personal  comfort  from  the  fact.  They  would  be  in  the  con- 
dition of  one  who  accepts  the  offer  he  believes  to  be  made  him,  and 
still  does  not  realize  the  gift !    Such  hope  deferred  would  make  the 


286  THE   KNOWLEDGE   OP  ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD. 

heart  sick.     True  indeed,  it  is  written  in  the  Scriptures,  ''  he  that 
helicveth  in  Me  shall  be  saved" — pardoned;  and  is  not  this  enough 
for  his  comfort?     Quite  enough  for  the  belief  of  a  great  general 
truth ;  but  it  is  nowhere  written  that  /  have  actually  reached  that 
true  penitent  belief  which  has  certainly  secured  the  act  of  pardon 
in  my  favor !     The  mind,  left  to  itself  at  this  point,  would  recoil 
from  such  a  belief  as  a  bold  presumption.     All  its  antecedent  train- 
ing has  been  to  inspire  it  with  profound  distrust  of  self — even  to 
the  loathing  of  self  in  sackcloth  and  ashes !     In  this  mental  state,  to 
venture  unaided  upon  such  a  belief  would  indeed  be  a  bold  pre- 
sumption !     And  yet,  to  pause  at  this  point  is  fatal  to  peace — it  is  to 
sink  into  the  slough  of  Despond  !  only  the  more  fatal,  because  of  the 
great  height  of  the  fall !     Thank  God  !  this  is  not  a  case  in  which 
"  the  children  have  come  to  the  hirtli,  and  there  is  not  strenr/tJi  to  hring 
forth  !  "     There  is  one  that  does  know  the  acts  of  the  divine  mind  ! 
The  Holy  Spirit  knoivs  the  mind  of  God;  and  it  is  His  office-  (as 
seen  throughout  this  whole  process)  to  take  of  the  things  of  God,  and 
shoio  them  to  the  mind  of  man,  (John,  xvi,  14,)  ''tliat  we  might  know 
the  things  that  are  freely  given  to  us  of  God."  (1  Corinthians,  ii,  12.) 
This  great  fact,  contained  in  the  general  truth  revealed — ''your  sins 
are jjci'i'doned " — He  brings  before  the  mind;  and,  at  the  same  time, 
enables  the  man  so  cleai-ly  to  discern  and  so  justly  to  discriminate  > 
his  own  mental  states  as  a  penitent  believer,  that  he  clearly  sees  the 
harmony  of  this  truth  with  his  existing  mental  states,  and  thus  spirit- 
ually discerning,  he  believes  thi»  Scripture  truth,  that  he  is  pardoned ! 
And  this  belief,  thus  reached,  is  not  at  the  expense  of  his  humility, 
any  more  than  any  preceding  act  of  belief,  which,  being  reached  in 
this  way,  did  actually  beget  and  increase  it.     Now,  this  belief,  as  in 
each  preceding  instance  of  belief,  is  immediately  followed  by  its  own 
appropriate  emotion — a  feeling  of  duty  to  take  upon  him  the  yoke 
"of  pviblic  profession,  and  openly  confess   Christ  before  man !     The 
act  of  faith  (consent)  as  immediately  follows,  and  he  breaks  forth  in 
strains  of  humble  joy — "  Tes,  I,  even  so  great  a  sinner  as  I,  am  jyar- 
daned  !  I  wees  lost,  but  am  found!  I%cas  dead,  but  am  alive!   Glory 
to  God  in  the  highest!"     His  heart  overflows  with  grateful  love  and 
triumphant  joy ! 

In  all  this,  no  miracle*  is  performed,  as  some  suppose.  The  result, 
according  to  the  established  laws  of  mind,  could  not  be  otherwise 
than  it  is.     A  system  of  new  truths  is  initiated  in  the  mind.     Not 


THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF  ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD.  287 

.by  any  one  act,  but  by  all  together,  au  entire  change  is  effected. 
The  j5??re  reason,  whose  vast  powers  of  discerning  abstract  truth  had 
been  for  the  most  part  limited  in  its  exercise  to  the  demands  of  ex- 
ternal knowledge,  (which  were  only  to  gratify  the  physical  senses, 
through  which  it  came,  and  which  state  of  facts  subordinated  it  to 
the  carnal  mind,)  is  now  raised  to  its  own  proper  sphere  and  dignity. 
It  is  raised  to  deal  with  those  high  abstract  ideas,  the  truatful  belief 
of  which  has  operated  to  enthrone  love  in  the  heart.  Before  this, 
the  ideas  which  come  through  the  physical  senses  (the  use  which 
the  reason  made  of  this  knowledge  constitutes  the  carnal  mind)  fur- 
nished the  Kill  with  natural  desires,  in  the  form  of  appetite,  propen- 
sity, and  affection,  as  the  only  motive  of  action.  Of  course,  the  man 
was  carnally  minded,  or  lived  to  gratify  natural  desire.  This  gratifi- 
cation was  only  restrained  by  the  limits  of  the  will's  power,  and  the 
fear  of  public  opinion,  and  those  cheeks  of  spiritual  conscience 
awakened  by  the  ideas  of  pure  moral  truth  brought  before  the  reason 
by  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  as  no  act  of  faith,  or  consent  to  obey  this 
conscience,  followed  the  emotion,  both  the  belief  and  the  emotion 
passed  away,  and  left  the  reason,  as  before,  the  mere  agent  of  natural 
desire!  But  now  \h.Q pure  reason,  the  true  spiritual  nature,  believing 
and  trusting  in  the  ideas  of  moral  truth,  has,  in  the  place  of  natural 
desire,  enthroned  in  the  heart,  tlie  love  of  God  as  the  great  motive  of 
the  will's  future  action.  The  xoill  is  now  in  circumstances  of  power 
never  before  realized.  It  can  limit  the  gratification  of'  the  natural 
desires  by  the  will  of  God;  and  to  do  this  is  to  keep  the  command- 
ments of  God. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  law,  (as  a  schoolmaster,)  having  brought 
him  to  Christ,  has  effected  that  which,  because  it  "  icas  xccak"  through 
the  dominion  of  the  carnal  mind,  it  could  not  of  itself  do — that  is, 
effected  obedience  to  the  commandments  of  God.  The  man  is 
changed  altogether,  in  beliefs,  feelings,  and  practice.  He  is  born 
again.  He  is  a  new  creature  in  Christ  Jesus !  And  from  first  to 
last,  the  Holy  Spirit  is  the  direct  agent,  employed  in  the  office  of 
a  witness,  or  one  testifying  to  the  truth ;  and  faith  in  Christ  (an  act 
of  man's  will)  is  the  condition  on  which  he  realizes  the  benefits  of 
this  testimony. 

Now,  to  realize  a  thing  is  to  be  conscious  of  it.  Hence  this  man 
is  conscious  he  lelieves,  and  is  conscious  he  feels  that  which  he  be- 
lieves.    He  is  conscious  he  trusts,  and  conscious  that  he  feels  the 


288  THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD. 

ultimate  results  of  this  trust — that  is,  he  feels  the  love  of  God  shed 
abroad  in  his  heart.  He  has  then  the  evidence  of  his  own  con- 
sciousness, that  he  is  a  new  man.  And  as  a  man's  spirit  is  the 
power  by  which  he  is  conscious  or  knows  his  own  mental  states,  he 
has,  in  the  fact  of  his  consciousness,  the  evidence  of  his  own  spirit, 
corroborating  the  testimony  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  that  he  is  a  child 
of  God. 

Such  was  the  experience  of  Eoman  Christians.  But  what  they 
experienced,  it  is  the  privilege  of  all  to  experience  who  live  under 
the  Gospel  dispensation.  Hence  the  Apostle  asserts  the  general 
truth,  "  The  Spirit  itself  ^careth  loitness  "  (along)  "  icith  our  spirits, 
that  tee  are  the  children  of  God."  And,  surely,  if  a  man  may  aflGirm 
that  he  knows  any  particular  thing,  when  that  thing  is  so  presented 
to  his  mind  that  he  clearly  sees  its  harmony  with  all  his  ideas  of 
truth,  and  at  the  same  time  has  a  distinct  consciousness  that  he  does 
so  perceive  it,  and  (still  more)  that  he  personally  enjoys  the  benefits 
resulting  from  that  truth,  then  may  the  Christian  say,  "  I  know  that 
I  am  a  child  of  God."  Aye,  and  not  to  say  it  is,  to  his  mind,  the 
most  unnatural  thing  in  the  world.  This  is  so  obvious,  that  unless 
his  judgment  of  duty  is  betrayed,  by  a  false  philosophy,  into  an  un- 
grateful silence,  he  will  naturally  exclaim,  with  David,  "  Come  and 
hear,  all  ye  that  fear  God,  and  I  will  declare  what  He  hath  done  for 
my  sold)  as  far  as  the  East  is  from  the  West,  so  far  hath  He  sepa- 
rated my  transgressions  from  me." 

It  is  therefore  the  privilege  of  all  to  whom  Christ  is  preached,  to 
Jcnoio  their  sins  forgiven  ;  and  unless  I  have  greatly  mistaken  the 
facts  of  Christian  experience,  and  those  mental  states  which  that 
experience  nece&sarily  implies,  this  doctrine  is  in  perfect  harmony 
with  them. 

II.  Several  inferences  of  grave  import  are  deducible  from  this 
discussion.     I  notice  two  only. 

1.  The  things  to  which  the  Divine  Spirit  together  with  our  own 
spirit  testifies,  and  the  conscious  perception  of  which  constitutes  our 
knowledge  of  them,  are  matters  of  morcd  truth,  and"  not  of  physical 
or  absolute  truth.  Therefore  our  knowledge  of  these  truths,  though 
to  us  certain,  and  in  themselves  certain,  is  moral  knowledge,  and  not 
absolute  knowledge. 

This  distinction  is  of  grave  import,  in  estimating  the  practical 
bearings  of  the  apostle's  doctrine.     A  failure  to  note  this  distinction 


THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF  ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD.  289 

has  led  .many,  of  sound  experience  in  the  things  of  God,  to  reject 
the  doctrine  altogether;  and  from  the  same  cause,  many  who  adopt 
it  have  employed  such  terms  to  express  their  views,  or  have  urged 
such  conclusions  from  their  views,  as  justly  lay  them  open  to  the 
charge  of  fanatical  error.     Let  us  examine  these  terms. 

All  spiritual  truth  is  moral  truth,  and  all  primary  or  intuitive 
truth  is  absolute  truth.  The  diflFerence  is  this :  Absolute  truth  is 
not  only  certain  in  itself,  and  certain  to  our  minds,  (if  we  know  it 
at  all,)  but  it  is  certain  in  this  sense,  that  the  opposite  is  in  itself  an 
■impossihilifi/,  and  therefore  such  an  absurdity  that  we  are  not  capable 
of  believing  it  under  any  circumstances.  Two  and  two  are  equal  to 
/our,  is  an  absolute  truth ;  if  I  know  it  at  all,  I  am  incapable  of 
doubting  it,  or  in  any  degree  of  believing  its  contradictory.  Not 
so  with  moral  truth.  This,  though  certain  in  itself,  and  certain 
to  our  minds,  (if  we  know  it  at  all,)  is  yet  of  such  a  nature,  or 
our  relations  to  it  are  such,  that,  to  our  minds,  its  opposite  or 
contradictory  is  not  in  itself  an  impossibility,  and  therefore  not 
such  an  absurdity  that,  in  given  circumstances,  we  cannot  doubt 
or  disbelieve  the  moral  truth,  and  in  that  ratio  believe  its  contra- 
dictory. That  a  man  is  so  entirely/  penitent  and  trustful  as  to 
place  him  among  those  to  whom  the  divine  assurance  of  pardon  is 
given,  and  that  this  promised  act  of  pardon  has  really  passed  the 
divine  mind  in  his  favor,  are  high  and  consoling  moral  truths.  He 
may  be  entirely  certain  of  their  truth,  and  say,  and  truly  say,  ''  1 
hnoio  it;"  and  yet,  that  these  propositions  are  not  true,  is  not  in  itself 
an  impossibility,  and  therefore  not  such  an  absurdity  but  that  he 
may  {in  given  circxvnxstances)  believe  the  one  proposition,  when  he 
ought  to  believe  the  other.  In  a  word,  such  is  the  nature  of  this 
truth,  in  its  relations  to  him,  that  he  is  liable  to  be  betrayed  to  doubt 
that  which  he  ought  not  to  doubt,  and  lose  the  comfortable  assurance 
of  his  acceptance.  There  is  a  wide  dijBFerence,  then,  in  these  kinds  of 
knowledge.  The  one  is  absolute  certainty ;  the  other  is  moral  cer- 
tainty. The  one  admits  of  no  doubt,  under  any  circumstances;  the 
other,  though  certainly  true,  may  yet  be  doubted,  under  given  cir- 
cumstances. The  Christian  may,  very  improperly,  allow  himself  to 
doubt.  These  doubts  may  ripen  into  the  greatest  disaster — even  the 
rejection  of  Christ. 

These  things  being  so,  he  who  asserts  that  he  knows  he  is  a  child 
of  God,  in  the  sense  of  absolute  knowledge,  (as  many  do,)  commits 
19 


290  THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF  ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD. 

himself  to  a  belief  that  admits  of  no  doubt  at  any  time.  For  such 
a  one  to  doubt,  as  it  is  quite  possible  he  may  do,  and  very  certain 
he  will  do,  if  not  well  instructed  in  the  things  of  God,  is  to  be  thrown 
upon  the  conviction  that  his  whole  experience  is  a  delusion  of  some 
kind  !  It  is  well  if  he  escape  unhurt  from  this  snare  of  Satan.  It 
is  to  be  feared  that  many  a  young  and  uninstructed  convert  has 
been  wrecked  upon  this  coast  of  unbelief,  and  set  adrift  again  upon 
the  wide  ocean  of  sin.  On  the  other  hand,  many  who  thus  confound 
moral  with  absolute  certainty,  because  this  certainty  implies  the  im- 
possibility of  doubting  under  any  circumstances,  reject  the, doctrine 
of  the  direct  witness  of  the  Spirit  altogether,  and  involve  themselves 
in  errors  no  less  disastrous.  Instead  of  saying,  with  Paul,  "the  Spirit 
itself  hcaretli  witness  with  my  spirit,  that  I  am  a  child  of  God"  or 
"/  hnoio  luhom  I  have  lelieved,"  they  would  have  us  say,  "I  hope  I 
am  a  child  of  God."  But  it  is  quite  certain  this  is  no  improvement 
on  Paul's  language,  and  may  prove  as  fatal  to  them  as  it  is  certainly 
contradictory  of  his  theology !  One  thing  may  be  relied  on— genuine 
Christian  experience  is  essentially  the  same  in  the  case  of  every  man 
who  realizes  it.  Temperament  and  education,  or  habits  of  thought, 
will  to  an  extent  modify  its  manifestation,  both  to  ourselves  and  to 
others.  One  is  neither  the  less  or  more  a  Christian,  because  his 
views  and  feelings  are  marked  by  particular  accidents  of  birth  or 
education.  The  general  class,  to  which  all  varieties  belong,  is  dis- 
tinctly marked  as  to  essential  experience.  Each  individual  of  this 
class  takes  upon  him  the  yoke  of  Christ,  openly  avowing  himself  a 
child  of  God,  and,  as  such,  asserting  his  hope  of  getting  to  heaven 
at  last.  Now,  this  is  his  profession  before  all  the  world,  and  he  is  so 
understood  in  the  ordinances  of  baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper. 

But  upon  what  ground  is  this  profession  made  ?  He  makes  it, 
because  he  is  satisfied  in  his  own  mind  that  he  is  a  child  of  God; 
"  and  nothing  short  of  this  open  declaration  of  what  God  has  done  for 
him  will  fill  the  measure  of  his  gratitude  for  the  great  love  where- 
with He  has  loved  him.  All  true  disciples  agree  in  this  experience. 
They  are  conscious  these  things  are  so.  Now,  if  they  also  allow 
themselves  to  think,  that  because  they  are  certain  these  things  are 
so,  they  cannot,  under  any  circumstances,  doubt  about  them;  they 
fall  into  gross  error.  They  assume  that  the  subject  matter  of  their 
knowledge  is  in  itself  absolute  truth,  which  is  not  the  case.  The 
dominion  of  this  error  (as  already  stated)  may  prove  their  ruin. 


THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD.  291 

If,  no.w,  to  avoid  this  error,  that  a  true  Christian  cannot  at  any 
time  doubt  his  conversion,  we  adopt  the  doctrine,  that  the  neio  hu-th 
does  not  imply  the  knowledge  of  sins  forgiven,  and  by  consequence 
reject  the  doctrine  of  the  direct  witness  of  the  Spirit;  we  shall  not 
mend  the  matter.  For,  if  this  be  true,  we  make  douhtiiKj  a  necessary 
element  of  Christian  experience.  We  shall  not  usually  rise  higher 
than  our  aim.  But  we  do  not  aim  to  rise  higher  than  a  hope  of  pres- 
ent acceptance,  which  necessarily  implies  a  doubt  as  to  our  conver- 
sion. But  this,  in  the  nature  of  things,  is  a  very  uncomfortable  state 
to  an  awakened  mind.  It  will  inevitably  keep  it  in  constant  con- 
flict with  this  assurance  of  the  Saviour :  "  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that 
labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest."  For  it  is  very 
certain,  that  when  He  fulfils  this  promise.  He  brings  our  minds  into 
that  state  of  quiet  repose  which  is  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  idea 
that  a  painful  doubt  (and  all  doubt  is  painful)  should  hang  over  the 
question  of  our  present  safety.  Should  one  at  any  time  feel  this 
quiet  repose  of  mind,  in  the  belief  that  he  is  a  child  of  God  j  as  he 
does  not  allow  himself  to  think  that  he  can  be  thus  conscious  or 
know  that  this  is  so,  he  is  bound  to  ignore  the  consciousness  as  mere 
fanatical  excitement,  and  to  fall  back  into  painful  fears  of  the  future. 
This  error,  in  many  instances,  effectually  shuts  the  door  against  the 
peace  which  can  only  flow  from  the  trust/id  belief  that  we  are  the 
children  of  God.  I  am  not  surprised,  therefore,  that  the  peace  and 
joy  of  the  true  spiritual  life  should  not  more  generally  characterize 
the  experience  of  this  class  of  persons;  but  that,  wearied  and  harassed 
with  doubts,  they  should  so  generally  tend  to  the  coldness  and  inanity 
of  formalism !  I  know  not  which  is  the  greater  evil  of  the  two — 
the  holding  the  truth  in  error,  or  the  rejection  of  the  truth  in  order 
to  avoid  the  error ! 

The  true  ground,  it  seems  to  me,  is  this :  "It  is  my  privilege  to 
know  my  sins  forgiven ;  but  this  knowledge  constitutes  moral  cer- 
tainty, not  absolute  certainty."  This  ground  is  safe.  No  man  need 
fear  to  take  the  fortunes  of  truth.  If  I  can  know  that  anything  is 
true,  I  surely  know  that  to  be  true  which  the  Holy  Spirit,  together 
with  my  own  consciousness,  testifies  to  me  is  true.  Still  this  cer- 
tainty is  not  absolute.  If  it  was,  I  could  in  no  case  doubt  the  fact. 
But  I  am  capable  of  doubting,  and  of  believing  it  is  not,  when  it 
really  is  so.  Because  that  it  is  not  so,  is  to  my  mind,  at  least,  possi- 
ble.    And  if  I  allow  myself  to  be  betrayed  (as  Satan  has  bcti-aycd 


292  THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF  ACCEPTANCE  "WITH   GOD. 

many)  into  those  unscriptural  views  which  lead  me  to  conclude, 
contrary  to  all  truth,  that  my  deep  repentance  and  conscious  belief 
that  I  am  a  child  of  Grod  might  be,  and  probably  is,  the  work  of 
Satan,  or  of  my  own  deceitful  heart;  I  shall  certainly  doubt  of  my 
acceptance,  and  believe  myself  deceived  in  that  of  which  I  was  be- 
fore satisfied  that  Ihnewl  And  so,  if  I  allow  myself  to  take  these 
unscriptural  views  of  the  love  of  which  I  am  now  so  happily  con- 
scious, that  lead  to  the  belief  that,  because  it  is  not  as  ardent  as  I 
think  it  ought  to  be,  in  the  case  of  so  great  a  sinner  as  I  have  been, 
and  that  therefore  it  does  not  result  from  the  fact  that  I  am  par- 
doned, but  from  the  fact  that  I  only  imagine  that  I  am  ;  in  this  cage, 
also,  I  shall  doubt.  And  these  perplexing  doubts  will  not  only 
greatly  abridge  my  comforts,  but  lay  me  open  to  the  most  disastrous 
assaults  of  my  spiritual  foes.  Now,  we  know  that  it  is  possible,  and 
especially  for  such  as  are  not  deeply  experienced  in  the  teachings 
of  the  Bible,  to  be  betrayed  into  these  erroneous  methods  of  think- 
ing. Therefore  our  certainty  that  we  are  the  children  of  God  is 
not  absolute  certainty.  For,  if  so,  the  proposition  that  %oe  were  not, 
would  be  to  our  intuitive  perceptions  an  impossibility  in  itself,  and 
we  should  be  incapable  of  believing  it  in  the  slightest  degree,  or 
even  of  maintaining  any  such  course  of  thinking  as  might  lead  t,o 
the  belief  of  it.  For  these  reasons,  it  would  be  impossible  for  Satan 
even  to  tempt  us  to  such  belief.  For,  since  the  world  began,  it  was 
never  known  that  a  sane  mind  was  either  induced  to  believe,  or  even 
tempted  to  believe,  that  two  and  two  are  not  equal  to  four.  But  he 
does  tempt  the  children  of  God  to  believe  that  they  are  not  pardoned. 
The  fact  that  this  proposition  is  not  to  their  intuitive  perceptions  an 
impossibility,  is  the  ground  on  which  he  is  able  to  do  it.  And  (I 
repeat)  if  we  allow  ourselves  to  be  decoyed  to  those  stand-points  from 
which  his  proposition  looks  reasonable,  (and  there  are  maijy  such,) 
we  shall  find  ourselves  believing  it,  and  of  course  doubting  whether 
we  are  the  children  of  God.  Doubt  is  the  first  step  towai'ds  the 
highway  of  unbelief  and  ruin.     Let  us  beware  of  th^  first  step  ! 

Aye  then,  says  one,  this  doctrine  of  the  direct  witness  of  the  Spirit 
is' not  the  comfortable  doctrine  I  have  been  taught  to  think  it  is! 
My  objection  is,  that  your  view  robs  it  of  half  its  comfort.  I  sup- 
posed that  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  left  no  room  to  doubt,  and  it 
troubles  me  to  think  that  with  this  witness  it  is  even  possible  for  me 
to  doubt ! 


THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD.  293 

As  an  experimental  Christian,  you  are  sentimentally  correct;  but 
allow  me  to  say,  that  you  need  to  be  instructed  as  to  the  language 
you  use,  and  the  extent  to  which  that  language,  no  doubt,  misrepre- 
sents your  own  views.  Your  objection  implies  that  the  comfort  iu 
question  arises  from  the  intensity  or  degree  of  the  certainty,  and 
that  there  is  more  certainty  (so  to  speak)  in  absolute  certainty  than 
in  moral  certainty.  But  this  is  not  the  case,  as  you  suppose.  In  ab- 
solute certainty  you  are  entirely  certain,  and  in  moral  certainty  you 
may  be  entlreJy  certain.  In  each  case  the  certainty  is  complete. 
There  is  no  room  for  increase,  in  the  case  in  which  it  is  complete. 
And  yet  the  difference  in  the  comfort  arising  from  these  certainties 
is  very  great ;  and,  contrary  to  your  hypothesis,  it  is  all  on  the  side 
of  moral  certainty.  You  are  certain  that  one  and  one  are  equal  to  two. 
You  are  also  entirely  certain  that  your  dying  wife  was  sincere  when 
^he  extorted  the  promise  to  meet  her  in  heaven.  Which  affords  you 
most  comfort  ?  The  first  has  its  pleasure  as  a  question  of  science ; 
the  second  affords  immeasurable  comfort  as  a  question  of  moral  cer- 
tainty. Whence  ^oes  this  great  difference  arise  ?  Not  from  the 
degree  of  certainty — for  that  is  the  same  iu  each  case,  but  from  the 
nature  of  the  truth  of  which  you  are  certain.  Physical  truths  (mat- 
ters of  absolute  certainty)  are  sources  of  pleasure,  and  especially 
when  connected,  as  they  frequently  are,  with  moral  truths.  But 
moral  truths,  because  they  involve  the  questions  of  right  and  wrong, 
(good  and  evil,)  deal  directly  with  men's  feelings,  and  are  therefore 
the  great  sources  of  human  comfort.  Are  you  morally  certain  that 
you  are  a  child  of  God  ?  What  if  it  he  pos&ihle  for  you  to  believe  it 
to  be  otherwise  ?  That  is  not  a  reason  why  you  sJiould  believe  it  to 
be  otherwise.  You  are  now  on  a  lofty  eminence,  which  relieves  the 
oppressive  heat  by  refreshing  breezes,  and  affords  you  the  most  com- 
manding views  your  eyes  ever  beheld !  You  are  certain  your  situa- 
tion is  one  of  entire  safety,  but  you  are  equally  certain  that  it  may 
prove  to  be  a  very  unsafe  one;  but  surely  this  is  no  reason  why  you 
should  walk  to  the  edge  of  the  precipice,  and  precipitate  yourself 
headlong  to  ruin  !  And  how  did  you  reach  the  present  spiritual  ele- 
vation, on  which  you  are  so  conscious  that  you  are  safe  ?  It  was  by 
assenting  (an  act  of  judgment)  to  the  successive  Scripture  truths 
brought  by  the  Holy  Spirit  before  your  mind,  and  by  consenting  (an 
act  of  the  will,  or  faith)  to  all  the  obligations  you  felt  that  this  belief 
imposed  upon  you.     The  last  iu  the  series  of  these  truths  was,  that 


294  THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD. 

you  were  pardoned.  To  the  obligations  of  this  truth,  to  wit :  that 
you  take  upon  you  the  yoke  of  Christ,  or  a  Christian  profession, 
bearing  the  Cross  before  all  men,  and  thus  glorify  God  in  your  body 
and  in  your  spirit,  which  are  His,  you  also  consented.  Thus  you 
received  the  Lord  Jesus  !  Now,  "  as  ye  received  Him,  so  walk  ye  in 
Him."  In  Him  abide.  Keep  your  mind  upon  these  points,  and 
employ  yourself  in  efforts  to  fulfil  all  the  obligations  of  your  com- 
mitment, and  you  will  not  be  annoyed  with  doubts.  You  will  daily 
advance  to  manhood  in  the  Christian  life.  In  a  word^  trust  and  worJc 
in  doing  good,  and  you  will  be  a  stranger  to  doubts.  But  allow 
yourself  so  far  to  yield  your  faith  or  consent  to  the  obligations  of 
duty  as  to  feel  culpably  negligent,  because  duty  is  so  great  a  weari- 
ness that  oftentimes  you  cannot  encounter  it,  and,  you  may  rely  on 
it,  doubts  will  rise  upon  you  like  an  armed  man.  You  have  in  a 
measure  yielded  (though  secretly)  your  faith.  You  have  cast  away 
your  shield  1  The  enemy  is  at  hand.  If  you  do  not  quickly  recover 
your  shield,  he  will  be  upon  you  with  all  his  forces.  But,  again,  even 
though  you  go  not  so  far  as  to  withdraw  your  consent  to  the  obliga- 
tions of  duty,  but  allow  yourself  to  cherish  those  "vain  tJioui/hts" 
which  Satan  has  power  to  excite,  and  which,  with  David,  you  have 
so  much  cause  to  deplore;  you  will  find  that  your  mind  is  led  away 
from  the  only  safe  stand-point,  which  is  this  :  "  Jesus  Christ  is  my 
atonement — in  Him  I  am  safe."  Instead  of  these  ideas,  it  is  led  to 
deal  with  "  vain  thoughts."  But  it  is  not  able  to  distiiiguish  those 
which  Satan  suggests  (and  which,  therefore,  you  cannot  help)  from 
those  which  spring  up  from  your  own  mind,  and  which  therefore 
you  ought  to  help,  and  would  help,  if  you  were  at  the-  right  stand- 
point. Such  persons  are  soon  perplexed  and  confounded  by  these 
harassing  mental  states.  What  they  know  to  be  at  least  possible, 
they  will  soon  begin  to  look  on  as  quite  probable ;  that  is,,  they  will 
begin  to  doubt  whether  they  were  converted  !  But  the  voice  of  the 
Good  Shepherd  is  crying  after  these  lambs  of  the  fold.  It  is  well 
if  the  fears  which  now  distract  them,  cause  them  tp  turn  their  eyes 
to  Him.  They  will  soon  again  be  at  His  feet;  and,  though  wounded 
and  bleeding,  they  will  be  looking  up  to  Him,  and  resolving  togo 
not  again  for  fruit  into  the  wilderness  of  vain  thoughts  !  Frequent 
excursions,  however,  of  *this  kind,  will  beget  self-confidence.  Self- 
confidence  makes  us  deaf  to  the  voice  of  the  Good  Shepherd.  The 
danger  is  not  the  less,  nor  may  we  be  the  less  sensible  of  it;  but  we 


THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD.  295 

are  learning  to  trust  ourselves  for  safety — our  reason — our  philoso- 
phy— our  moral  firmness  to  maintain  our  faith  against  all  odds !  But 
the  contest  is  an  unequal  one.  The  case  is  one  in  which  this  David 
is  gone  to  meet  Goliath,  without  his  sling,  or  even  so  much  as  a  peb- 
ble from  the  brook  of  truth !  Wearied  with  so  unequal  a  contest, 
the  yoke  of  Christ's  profession  will  become  a  sore  burden.  Consent 
to  its  obligations  may  be  withdrawn ;  and,  if  so,  the  man  emerges 
from  this  wilderness  of  mental  conflict,  into  the  broad  desert  of  sin 
and  ruin,  where  the  voice  of  the  Good  Shepherd  is  seldom  heard ! 

Let  us,  then,  stand  near  the  Cross !  Let  us  ivoric,  as  well  as  watch 
and  pray!  Let  the  desponding,  melancholy  man,  whose  mind  is  torn 
by  distracting  thoughts,  break  away  to  the  field  of  duty — his  farm-r- 
his  merchandise — or  to  his  study.  Here  he  may  find  the  Cross  ! 
Only  let  him  ask,  as  he  adds  dollar  to  dollar,  or  wins  golden  opinions 
from  the  good,  with  persecutions  from  the  evil,  how  shall  I  turn 
this  growing  capital  to  the  account  of  my  Lord's  goods?  What  pious 
foundations  can  I  lay?  Where,  how,  can  I  do  good  with  my  Lord's 
money  ?  So,  also,  let  the  woman  do,  whose  feeble  nerves  are  daily 
yielding  under  mental  frictions,  which  make  life  a  burden,  and 
precipitate  her  into  the  "  slough  of  Despond ! "  In  duf^  she  will 
find  the  Cross,  and  be  comforted  by  the  voice  of  the  Good  Shepherd. 
Let  her,  therefore,  break  away  from  her  sentimental  books !  Let 
her  away  to  her  kitchen,  her  chambers,  and  to  every  part  of  the 
field  of  domestic  duty ;  or  away  to  the  houses  of  sorrow  and  death ! 
Let  her  own  sweet  voice  console  the  afflicted !  Let  her  own  soft 
hands  minister  to  the  wants  of  the  sick,  and  smooth  the  pillow  of  the 
dying !  In  all  these  things,  the  Cross  shall  be  seen  without  a  vail 
between,  and  the  voice  of  the  Good  Shepherd  be  so  heard  within  as 
to  make  you  certain  of  your  acceptance — so  certain  as  to  shut  out  all 
occasion  to  doubt.  You  shall  grow  in  grace,  and  rejoice  as  you  look 
forward  to  your  home  in  heaven ! 

2.  Another  inference  from  this  discussion  is,  that  it  is  the  joint 
testimony  of  the  Divine  Spirit  and  of  our  own  spirits  that  is  the 
ground  of  our  knowledge. 

Neither  of  these,  separately  considered,  will  meet  the  necessities 
of  our  case.  They  are  Joint  witnesses,  and  must  be  so  considered. 
The  divine  testimony  is  the  cause,  and  our  consciousness  is  the  effect. 
The  cause  is  imminent  in  the  effect,  and  cannot  in  truth  be  sepa- 
rated from  it.     The  Christian,  who,  in  his  modes  of  thinking,  shall 


296  THE    KNOWLEDGE   OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD. 

divorce  tliat  wliicli  God  has  joined  together,  will  do  so  at  great  haz- 
ard, however  sincere  he  may  be. 

Suppose  a  man,  for  example,  ignores  his  consciousness  of  love,  joy, 
Ijcace,  and  the  like,  (the  testimony  of  his  own  spirit,)  and  relies  alone, 
for  proofs  of  his  Christian  character,  upon  what  he  considers  the 
witness  of  the  Divine  Spirit;  he  will  soon  grow  to  be  a  pure  fanatic. 
Guided  by  impulses  alone,  he  will  adopt  the  wildest  and  most  extrav- 
agant doctrines — the  fruit  of  an  overwrought  imagination — and  pre- 
sent, from  time  to  time,  the  most  ridiculous  caricatures  of  the  plain- 
est truths  of  the  Bible.  Such  a  one  will  grow  rapidly  in  spiritual 
pride.  Inflated  beyond  measure  with  self-importance,  it  will  be  well 
if  he  stop  this  side  of  actual  lunacy ! 

On  the  other  hand,  suppose  a,  man  ignores  (as  I  incline  to  think 
but  few  do,  in  point  of  fact,  although  many  do  it  in  the  terms  of  their 
theory)  the  witness  of  the  Divine  Spirit  altogether;  he  will  gain,  it 
is  true,  by  avoiding  many  of  the  errors  of  fanaticism,  but,  in  another 
direction,  he  will  lose  the  full  equivalent  of  the  gains. 

This  man  relies  upon  his  consciousness  of  love,  joy,  peace,  long-mf- 
fering,  gentleness,  meekness,  temperance,  and  Jiclelify,as  the  proofs  and 
tests  of  his  claim  to  the  hope  of  heaven.  But  the  question  will  often 
arise — he  cannot  help  it ;  the  interests  involved  suggest  it — what  is 
love,  and  the  rest?  and  why  should  they  establish  my  claim  to 
heaven  ?  Why  love  ?  It  is  the  pleasurable  feeling,  the  delight,  I 
have  in  thinking  of  God  as  my  reconciled  Father !  But,  surely,  I 
must  first  be  persuaded  in  my  own  mind  that  He  is  my  reconciled 
Father,  before  I  can  possibly  delight  in  Him  as  such.  But  how 
now  ?  You  show  to  your  own  satisfaction  that  you  hve  God,  by  the 
fact  that  you  are  before  persuaded  that  He  is  your  reconciled  Father; 
and  you  then  prove  that  He  is  your  reconciled  Father,  by  the  fact 
that  you  love  Him  !  Mahomet  is  a  prophet.  How  do  you  know  he 
is  ?  Because  the  Koran  says  so.  But  how  do  you  know  that  what 
the  Koran  says  is  true  ?  Because  Mahomet  is  a  prophet,  and  he  says 
it  is  true.  Very  smart,  to  be  sure !  So,  in  this  case,^the  man  postu- 
lates the  fact  that  God  has  pardoned  him,  and  thus  accounts  for  his 
love;  and  then  proves  his  postulate  by  the  fact  that  he  does  love 
Him !  Equally  smart,  no  doubt !  Now,  the  truth  is,  that  Satan 
makes  short  work  of  all  such  logic  as  this.  In  the  case  of  every 
man  (speaking  of  truly  converted  men)  who  does  not,  most  fortu- 
nately, deceive  himself,  when  he  asserts  that  he  discards  the  doctrine 


THE    KNOWLEDGE    OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH    GOD.  297 

'  of  the  direct  witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  matter  will  stand  before 
his  unclouded  reason  somewhat  in  this  way,  namely  :  "  It  is  idle  for  me 
to  think  of  knowing  that  an  act  of  pardon  has  passed  the  divine  mind 
in  my  favor,  unless  the  Holy  Spirit  (the  admitted  medium  of  com- 
munication, if  there  be  any  at  all)  has  by  some  means  so  displayed 
the  Scripture  statement  before  the  mind,  that  the  hdi>;ver  is  pardoned, 
that  I  so  clearly  discern  the  agreement  of  my  mental  states  with  this 
assurance  as  to  be  fully  persuaded  that  I  am  pardoned.  He  only  is 
cognizant  of  the  fact,  and,  if  I  be  not  informed  by  Him,  I  am  not  in- 
formed at  all;  and  to  allow  myself  to  think  that  it  is  so,  is  the  mere 
fancy  of  a  heated  imagination — the  wild  dream  of  an  excited  brain ! 
But  I  utterly  discard  the  belief  that  there  is  any  such  testimony  of, 
the  Divine  Spirit.  Therefore,  any  impression  that  I  may  cherish 
that  I  am  pardoned  is  mere  imagination  ;  and  the  idea  that  I  delight 
in  God,  as  reconciled  to  me  (which  could  not  be  without  the  antece- 
dent belief  that  He  was  reconciled)  is  the  mere  chimera  of  an  ex- 
cited brain,  which,  like  the  '  stars  and  garters  '  that  dance  before  the 
minds  of  the  ambitious,  plays  in  the  foreground  of  my  thought ! " 
The  whole  thing,  he  says,  is  unworthy  of  a  man  of  sense  !  This  man 
does  not  fall  into  mere  doubts.  He  rushes  headlong  into  disbelief; 
and  it  is  well,  if  he  stop  in  a  decent  morality. 

But  there  are  those  who,  although  they  reject  the  doctrine  in  ques- 
tion, still  greatly  magnify  the  office  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  conver- 
sion of  sinners.  If  there  is  a  revival,  an  awakening,  a  conversion — 
in  each  case,  they  say  truly,  the  Spirit  does  it.  Now,  all  this  involves 
a  belief  in  the  doctrine  for  which  we  contend.  And  hence,  I  must 
think  these  persons  deceive  themselves,  and  fortunately  so,  because 
it  is  on  the  side  of  truth.  But  still  "  the  fly  is  in  the  ointment."  No 
error  is  safe,  and  especially  when  it  enters  into  a  matter  of  Christian 
experience,  as  this  does ;  for  these  men,  no  less  than  the  others,  will 
certainly  find  themselves  entoiled  in  the  meshes  of  their  own  false 
theory.  They  will  recoil  with  horror,  it  is  true,  from  the  infidelity 
to  which  the  other  is  driven ;  and  falling  back  upon  their  settled 
belief,  that  all  religion  is  somehow  the  work  of  the  Spirit,  they 
will  conclude,  despite  their  theory  as  to  His  office  as  witness,  thai 
He  has  in  some  way,  without  a  direct  antecedent  persuasion  of 
pardon — an  impossibility,  by  the  way,  unless  He  work  by  miracle, 
violating  the  laws  of  mind,  which  no  Bible  reader  pretends  to  be- 
lieve— wrought  love,  peace,  and  joy,  in  the  heart,  and  the  like  graces 


298  THE    KNOWLEDGE    OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH    GOD. 

in  the  life ;  and  that  these,  and  these  alone,  are  the  proofs  to  the  man 
that  he  is  pardoned.  But  then  they  are  not  freed  from  serious  diffi- 
culties, nevertheless.  Their  theory  must  have  its  effect.  The  belief 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  so  brings  the  direct  truth  before  the  mind  that 
the  merit  of  Christ's  atonement  has  really  and  actually  availed  to 
procure  a  direct  pardon  for  him,  is  a  belief  which  brings  the  mind 
and  keeps  the  mind  in  direct  contact  with  the  atonement,  both  as 
the  cause  and  the  proof  of  his  pardon.  But  to  reject  the  belief  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  does  testify  to  this  fact,  by  so  displaying  it  to  the 
mind,  is  to  throw  us  upon  this  necessity;  the  current  of  thought  is 
turned  away  from  this  immediate  contact  with  the  atonement  of 
Christ,  as  both  the  cause  and  proof  of  pardon,  and  turned  to  the 
graces  of  love,  and  peace,  and  the  like,  as  the  direct  proofs.  Now  I 
say,  that  of  course,  (of  course,  because  he  can  no  more  help  it  than 
he  can  help  the  harmony  of  truth,)  to  our  minds,  these  graces  can 
only  be  proofs  in  the  ratio  in  which  we  estimate  them  to  exist.  Take 
love,  for  example.  If  our  delight  in  thinking  of  God  as  our  recon- 
ciled Father  is  very  great,  the  proof  that  we  are  pardoned  is  very 
strong.  If  it  exists  in  a  slight  degree,  the  proof  is  weak.  Now,  when 
will  it  appear  to  a  man's  mind  that  his  love,  thus  considered  in  itself,  is 
very  great  ?  It  can  only  so  appear,  when  to  his  mind  it  corresponds, 
in  some  good'  degree,  with  what  it  ought  to  be,  in  the  case  of  so  great 
a  sinner  as  he  knows  himself  to  have  been !  But  this  correspond- 
ence can  never  exist,  in  the  case  of  a  sinner  saved  by  grace.  ''  She 
loved  much,  because  much  was  forgiven."  This  is  the  principle  laid 
down  by  the  Saviour,  and  it  is  the  one  that  ought  to  govern  us  y  and 
it  is  the  only  one  that  can  control  this  man's  thoughts,  from  the 
stand-point  which  he  at  present  occupies.  Upon  this  principle,  then, 
he  is  to  determine  the  essential  value  of  his  love.  Of  what  value 
can  he  decide  it  to  be  ?  I  lay  it  down  as  an  unquestionable  truth, 
that  the  sinner,  saved  hy  grace,  can  give  but  one  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion, "  Is  the  grateful  pleasure  which  I  feel  towards  God,  sucli  as  so 
great  and  unworthy  a  sinner  as  I  am  ought  to  feel  J"  and  that  is, 
"  No  I  no  !  It  is  not,  by  any  means,  such  as  it  ought  to  be  !  "  Nay, 
we  need  not  be  surprised  if  this  subject  of  grace,  having  a  clear 
view  of  the  exceeding  evil  of  sin,  should  be  reluctant  to  admit  that 
he  has  any  love,  any  peace,  or  anything  else  but  a  deep  sense  of  sin 
and  its  fearful  results.  But,  still,  the  emotion  which  he  is  estimating 
remains  to  be  accounted  for.    It  is  a  strange  something.    What  is  it  ? 


THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF  ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD.  299 

and  echo,  answers,  What  is  it  ?  The  door  is  thus  thrown  wide  open 
to  the  tempter.  He  enters,  and  the  conflict  begins.  There  are  fearful 
odds  in  Satan's  favor,  because  the  conflict  is  from  within  !  "  Your 
love  is  nothing,"  says  he ;  "  you  yourself  admit  it."  And  how  can 
he  help  admitting  it  ?  For  in  the  comparative  view  which  he  takes 
of  it,  really  it  is  nothing  worth  the  mention,  and  it  must  always  re- 
main so;  because,  the  higher  he  rises  in  grace,  the  more  love  he 
has,  in  point  of  fact ;  the  more  clearly  does  he  discriminate  the  wide 
diff'erence  there  is  between  the  love  that  he  has  and  the  love  that  he 
ought  to  have,  as  a  sinner  saved  hrj  grace  !  So,  then,  from  this  point 
of  observation,  the  more  he  actually  has,  the  less  he  really  estimates 
it  to  be  !  What  chance,  then,  has  he,  in  so  unequal  a  contest  as  this,? 
Who  need  wonder,  when  he  considers  the  fluctuations  to  which  emotion 
is  liable,  from  many  causes,  and  the  specific  abatement  which  it  suff'ers 
under  this  severe  mental  conflict,  that  this  man  yields  to  the  belief 
that  his  love  is  only  imaginary,  animal  feeling,  or  sympathy,  and 
thus  falls  before  his  enemy  ?  And  if  he  escape  at  all  from  this  snare 
of  Satan,  it  is  by  falling  back  upon  his  general  belief,  (for  it  is  only 
general.)  "  All  religion  is  the  work  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  Christians 
tell  me  I  have  religion ;  somehow,  this  is  grace,  and  I  won't  give  it 
up  ! "  The  highest  attainment  we  can  suppose  it  possible  for  a  mind 
in  these  circumstances  to  reach,  is  one  of  alternate  hope  and  fear, 
until  the  mind  settles  down  into  a  mere  '*  liojpe  to  go  to  heaven," 
often  interrupted  by  serious  and  painful  doubts  whether  the  hope  is 
well  founded. 

Hence  the  origin  of  this  doubting  "  hope-so  "  religion  !  The  evi- 
dence of  our  own  spirit — our  consciousness  of  love,  peace,  and  obedi- 
ence— is  divorced  from  the  direct  testimony  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which 
testimony  is  imminent  in  that  of  our  oicn  spirits,  and  without  which 
that  of  our  spirits  is  in  truth  worth  nothing  as  proof,  but  with  which 
it  is  most  conclusive  and  consoling  evidence. 

Restore  this  union.  The  facts  will  appear  very  dlff'erently  from 
this  union  as  the  point  of  observation.  The  mental  states  which 
follow  will  also  be  very  difi"erent,  and  the  odds  will  be  greatly  in  our 
favor,  in  the  battle  to  which  we  go  !  Let  us  see :  I  take  the  case  of 
a  genuine  subject  of  grace,  who  holds  the  doctrine  of  Paul  in  regard 
to  the  union  of  these  witnesses,  who  says  the  testimony  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  is,  not  to  our  spirits,  but  along  "  with  our  spirits."  He  too.  as 
every  other  man,  is  drawn  into  this  great  battle.    What  are  his  mental 


300  THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF   ACCEPTANCE  "WITH   GOD. 

states  in  this  severe  struggle,  and,  it  may  be,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Jordan  of  death  ?  "  What  evidence  have  you,"  says  Satan, ''  to  sus- 
tain your  claim  of  right  to  retire  from  the  place  in  my  ranks  which 
once  you  so  nobly  filled  ?  "  "I  am  pardoned."  "  What !  do  t/ou 
love  God  too  ?  "  "  Yes,  I  trust  I  do  delight  in  him  greatly,  but  not 
as  much  as  I  ought  to  do,  and  hope  I  soon  shall  do.  My  love  is  very 
little,  compared  with  what  it  ought  to  be,  so  great  were  my  sins." 
"  But  how  do  you  know  that  you  love  him  ?  "  "  Because  I  was  alle 
to  believe,  and  did  believe,  that  Jesus  died  for  me."  J'  Suppose  He 
did ;  it  does  not  follow  that  you  are  pardoned,  unless  you  admit  the 
doctrine  of  universal  salvation ;  and  if  so,  we  are  agreed,  and  will 
walk  together."  "  Aye,  but  I  was  persuaded  that  His  atonement 
did  really  avail  to  procure  an  act  of  pardon  for  me ;  and,  moreover,  I 
saw  so  clearly  the  harmony  of  my  own  mental  states  with  this  fact, 
and  with  the  teachings  of  God's  Word,  I  not  only  believed  it,  but  I 
had  faith  in  it;  I  trusted  in  it,  and  therein  committed  myself  to- all 
the  ohligations  of  an  open  profession  that  Jesus  died  for  me  I  And  you 
know  that  no  such  poor  carnal  sinner,  as  I  was,  could  trust  in  so 
high  and  holy  a  truth  as  that,  unless  the  Holy  Spirit  had  broken  my 
chains,  dispelled  my  darkness,  and  lifted  me  up  to  see  and  admire  its 
beauty,  and  its  harmony  with  essential  truth !  Now,  these  things 
being  so,  I  think  it  very  reasonable  that  I  should  love  Him !  It 
would  be  the  most  unreasonable  thing  in  the  world,  if  I  did  not ;  and 
I  reproach  myself  that  I  do  not  love  Him  more  !  My  belief  and  my 
faith,  the  Scriptures  teach  me,  are  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  I 
am  sure  they  cannot  be  the  work  of  anything  else."  ''But  do  you 
not  allow  that  it  is  at  least  possible  you  may  be  deceived  ?  "  "  Yes, 
and  none  know  it  better  than  you,  or  you  would  not  try  to  induce 
me  to  believe  that  I  am  deceived !  It  does  not  follow,  however,  that 
I  am  deceived,  because  it  is  possible  that  I  may  be.  Moreover,  lest  I  be 
led  away  by  your  delusions,  that  some  other  spirit,  satanic  or  fanatic, 
has  persuaded  me  to  this  belief.  He  has  given  me  another  evidence ; 
it  is  the  testimony  of  my  own  spirit.  He  tells  me  Jhat  love,  peace, 
joy,  and  a  holy  life,  are  ike  fruits  of  this  divine  testimony;  that  no 
other  spirit,  on  earth  or  in  hell,  can  bear  these  fruits  in  my  heart 
and  life,  but  the  Divine  Spirit.  The  insight  He  gives  me  into  the 
atonement  leads  me  to  see  that  I  am  a  sinner.  His  further  insight 
gives  me  to  see  that  I  am  a  pardoned  sinner — a  light  so  clear  to  my 
mind  that  I  not  only  believe,  but  I  trust,  and  thus  commit  myself  to 


THE    KNOWLEDGE   OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH    GOD.  301 

all  the  obligations  of  this  belief;  and  the  fruit  of  it  all  is,  /  love 
God ;  and  my  consciousness  that  I  do  love  Him,  however  little  com- 
pared with  what  it  ought  to  be,  is  proof  to  me  that  I  am  not  de- 
ceived. The  two  witnesses  united  leave  me  without  a  shadow  of 
doubt  that  I  am  on  ray  way  to  heaven ;  I  therefore  boldly  assert  my 
independence  of  you,  Satan,  and  joyfully 'commit  myself  to  glorify 
Jesus  in  my  body  and  in  my  spirit,  which  are  His,  and  not  yours ! " 

Thus  we  perceive  that  this  saving  truth  keeps  the  whole  current 
of  thought  in  direct  contact  with  the  atonement.  It  weds  and  welds 
the  soul  to  the  Cross,  the  Christian's  only  hope.  It  is  equally  removed 
from  fanaticism  and  from  formalism.  Little  as  his  love  and  imper- 
fect as  his  obedience  may  be,  compared  with  what  they  ought  to  b^, 
still  these  graces  are  the  fruits,  little  or  much,  of  this  witnessing 
spirit;  and  thus  the  mind  is  led  to  the  Cross,  and  kept  at  the  Cross — 
the  only  point  from  which  he  can  view  himself,  as  "he  is,  a  sinner 
saved  hy  grace. 

This  man,  we  say,  is  born  again.  Though  but  a  babe  in  Christ,  it 
may  be,  he  has  every  element  of  the  spiritual  life,  and  enters  with 
cheerful  confidence  upon  its  hopes  and  its  toils.  He  is  in  this  mo- 
ment an  "  heir  of  God  and  joint  heir  with  Jesus  Christ."  For  the 
babe  is  not  the  less  a  human  being,  because  it  is  a  babe ;  nor  is  this 
man  the  less  a  child  of  God,  because  he  is  newly  born.  If  he  die  in 
the  moment  he  first  believes,  the  atonement  avails  for  him ;  he  goes 
directly  to  Paradise.  If  he  lives,  he  must  ^^  grow  in  grace  and  in  the 
hnowledge  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ."  The  muscles 
and  limbs  of  the  babe  must  grow  to  maturity.  So  must  this  man's 
spiritual  muscles  and  limbs — all  his  mental  states — take  their  in- 
tended position  of  height,  depth,  and  j^ei'mancnc)/.  And  as  the  being, 
who  was  once  a  babe,  is  now  conscious  that  he  is  a  man,  so  he,  who 
was  once  a  babe  in  Christ,  may  also  be  conscious  of  his  maturity — 
his  fixedness  in  grace  and  in  holy  pursuits  :  "  iliy  heart  is  fixed;  0 
God,  my  heart  is  fixed." 

Reader,  are  you  trying  to  go  to  heaven  ?  Do  not  live  without  this 
joint  testimony.  The  Cross!  the  Cross!  This  is  your  only  plea. 
Nothing  but  these  united,  witnessing  spirits,  can  bind  you  to  the 
Cross.  Even  when  you  shall  have  reached  the  maturity  of  spiritual 
manhood — the  sanctified  state,  in  which  you  rejoice  in  the  unwaver- 
ing fixedness  of  your  purpose  to  glorify  God  in  all  things — your 
great  elevation  will  but  serve  to  enable  you  to  stretch  your  spiritual 


302  THE    KNOWLEDGE    OF   ACCEPTANCE  WITH    GOD. 

vision  so  far  away  into  the  immeasurable  abyss  between  you  and  the 
infinite  holiness  of  God,  that  the  contrast,  reflecting  its  light  into  the 
depths  of  your  own  heart,  will  discover  so  vast  a  disparity  between 
what  is  and  what  ought  to  be,  that  you  will  still  feel  abased  before 
God ',  and  nothing  but  the  Cross,  the  blessed  Cross,  will  enable  you 
to  maintain  your  confidence;  and  nothing,  I  repeat,  but  these  wit- 
nessing spirits  will  bind  you  to  this  Cross ! 

"  Every  moment,  Lord,  I  need 

The  merit  of  Thy  blood." 


^ 


/^./'C^ 


■li'lUllHMIBIUil 


sowijfa  BEsn>E  all  waters. 


redeem  0 


304  SOWING  BESIDE   ALL  WATERS. 

happy  bands,  to  sow  beside  all  waters.     "  Blessed,"  says  be,  witb 
exultant  emotion,  "  Blessed  are  ye  that  sow  beside  all  waters  ! " 

Brethren,  the  kingdom  of  Christ  is  come !  His  reign  on  earth 
has  commenced.  The  wilderness  and  the  solitary  places  are  visited. 
Waters  break  out  in  the  wilderness,  and  streams  in  the  desert. 
Spring  is  breathing  over  land  and  sea.  A  motion  and  a  stir  are 
felt  in  the  depths  of  forests.  The  sowers  are  abroad,  on  the  hillside 
and  in  the  valley.  Is  it  not  the  sight,  in  its  first  stage  of  advance- 
ment, which  greeted  the  eyes  of  the  prophet  ?  Did-he  not  see  the 
sowers,  in  the  wilderness  of  this  new  land,  on  the  banks  of -the  Hud- 
son and  the  Mississippi,  by  the  far  Oregon  and  the  golden  shores  of 
the  Pacific  ?  Did  he  not  see  them  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  by  the 
waters  of  the  Ganges,  the  Brahmapootra,  and  the  Irrawaddy  ?  Did 
not  his  heart  go  out  towards  them  ?  Did  he  not  mingle,  so  to  speak, 
in  their  toils  and  triumphs?  Above  all,  did  he  not  behold  the 
glorious  harvest  waving  in  the  light  of  heaven,  ripe  for  the  sickle 
of  the  Lord — and  so,  hailing  them  through  the  ages,  cry  out, 
"  Blessed  are  ye  that  sow  beside  all  waters  ?  " 

This  is  the  great  work  to  which,  in  all  times,  the  church  is  called. 
This  is  the  work  to  which  we  are  called.     Let  us  inquire,  then,  with 
■a  view  to  a  practical  application  of  the  subject,  ^cliat  and  ichere  and 
liow  we  are  to  sow;  and,  finally,  as  to  the  blessedness  of  sowing  beside- 
all  waters. 

I.  In  answer  to  the  question,  W?iat  are  toe  to  soil)  ?  we  reply, 
briefly  and  at  once,  in  the  words  of  Christ,  "  the  good  seed  of  the 
kingdom" — that  is,  as  we  understand  it,  the  seed  of  eternal  truth, 
which,  taking  root  in  the  soil  of  the  human  heart,  shall  ''  grow  up, 
in  some  thirty,  in  others  sixty,  and  in  others  a  hundred  fold,  unto 
everlasting  life."  Hence,  it  is  not  every  seed  bearing  the  semblance 
of  the  divine  which  ripens  for  immortality.  Nothing  earth-born  or 
artificial  is  capable  of  producing  a  result  so  stupendous  and  beautiful. 
''  That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh; "  and  no  *'  broad"  or  formal 
church  can  divest  it  of  this  character;  "and  that^which  is  born  of 
the  Spirit  is  spirit."  It  is  emphatically  the  seed  of  Grod,  the  siqyer- 
natural,  and  thence  "  incorruptible  seed,  which  liveth  and  abideth  for- 
ever." In  plainer  and  less  figurative  words,  it  is  the  simple  but  om- 
nipotent truth  of  God, 'given  us  in  Christ,  and  made  vital — "  quick 
and  powerful,"  as  St.  Paul  expresses  it — by  the  Holy  Spirit.  De- 
scending from  heaven  as  a  power,  it  ascends  thither  as  a  growth. 


SOWIXG    BESIDE   ALL   WATERS.  305 

.  "For  as  the  ruin  comctli  down  from  heaven,  and  rcturncth  not 
thither  again,  but  watereth  the  earth,  that  there  may  be  seed  for  the 
sower  and  bread  for  the  eater,  so  shall  My  word  be  that  goeth  forth 
out  of  My  mouth.  It  shall  not  return  unto  Me  void,  but  it  shall 
prosper  in  the  thing  whereunto  I  sent  it."  The  eternal  harvest  on 
the  hills  of  God  is  thus  assured.  "For  ye  shall  go  out  with  joy, 
and  be  led  forth  with  peace.  The  mountains  and  the  hills  shall  break 
before  you  into  singing,  and  all  the  trees  of  the  field  shall  clap  their 
hands." 

What  we  want  is  not  the  husks  of  old  speculations  and  arid  dog- 
mas ;  not  the  chaff  of  human  philosophy,  fluttering  its  brief  hour 
amid  the  changing  winds  of  opinion;  not  the  debris  of  outward 
forms  and  vain  superstitions,  gathered  from  the  dust  of  the  dark 
ages ;  but  the  simple  Gospel  of  Christ,  quickened  by  the  breath  of 
the  Almighty,  and  lodged  as  a  living  power  in  throbbing  human 
hearts. 

This  is  what  each  man,  "  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,"  needs.  This 
is  what  the  world,  hoary  with  guilt,  needs  for  its  renovation.  And 
thus,  with  all  the  prophets  and  apostles  of  the  olden  time,  we  cry, 
''  0  J]arth  !  Earth  !  Earth  !  hear  the  Word  of  the  Lord  I"     ' 

Christianity,  then,  as  a  miracle  of  grace,  as  a  life-giving  seed,  must 
be  preached,  in  its  integrity,  among  all  nations,  "  for  a  witness."  It 
is  only  thus  that  it  will  prove  "  glad  tidings  of  great  joy  unto  all 
people,"  and  that  the  angels  of  God  will  accompany  its  proclamation 
with  their  jubilant  song,  "Glory  to  God  in  the  highest;  on  earth 
peace,  and  good  will  to  men  !  " 

II.  Our  next  inquiry  is,  Where  shaU  we  soio?  In  its  more  gen- 
eral application,  the  answer  has  been  anticipated;  for,  obviously,  "the 
field  is  the  world."  Unlike  all  other  religions,  Christianity  is  adapted 
to  universality.  Everywhere,  in  all  soils,  in  all  climates,  the  seed  of  the 
kingdom  germinates  and  grows.  It  thrives  equally  in  India  and  Ice- 
land. Other  religions,  Pagan  and  Mohammedan,  are  local  and  tempo- 
rary. Expatriated,  they  wither  and  die.  They  are  stationary,  also,  in 
the  very  lands  which  gave  them  birth.  Intertvined  with  the  social 
and  political  prejudices  of  the  people  whose  spirit  has  formed  them, 
they  are  incapable  of  the  slightest  improvement  and  expansion.  They 
recognise  "  lords  many  and  gods  many  "— "  gods  of  the  valleys,"  and 
"gods  of  hills."  Thus  we  have  the  nature-worship  of  the  ancient 
Magi— the  adoration  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars;  then  the  aesthetic 
20  ' 


306  SOWING  BESIDE  ALL  WATERS. 

symbolic  worsliip  of  the  Greeks,  in  which  all  the  forces  of  nature  and 
the  passions  of  the  human  soul  are  deified  and  adored ;  after  that,  the 
political  hero-worship  of  the  Romans,  in  which,  by  a  transference 
of  human  qualities  to  the  gods,  men  are  transformed  into  gods,  and 
gods  into  men.  Similar  systems  are  reproduced  in  modern  times,  so 
that  pantheism,  or  nature-worship,  and  polytheism — which  is  man- 
worship,  or,  in  more  degraded  form,  beast  worship — constitute  the 
religions  of  the  entire  heathen  world — adapted,  of  course,  with  end- 
less variations,  to  differ  ens  countries,  and  expressing,  with  marvellous 
precision,  the  moral  condition  of  each.  Narrow,  local,  defective, 
superstitious,  often  licentious  and  demoralizing,  and  in  some  in- 
stances absolutely  demoniac,  the  earth  groans  under  the  despotism 
of  religions;  so  that  what  was  originally  meant  for  a  blessing  is 
turned  into  a  curse. 

The  religion  of  Mohammed,  founded  partially  upon  the  Bible,  and 
recognising  one  true  and  eternal  God,  is  a  great  advance ;  but  that, 
too,  is  narrow  and  local  in  its  origin  and  aspirations.  It  has  no  power 
of  transformation,  in  the  case  either  of  the  individual  soul  or  of  the 
race.  It  is  meagre,  despotic,  and  selfish ;  so  that  it  is  impossible  for 
the  nation  in  which  it-  prevails  to  rise  into  anything  like  moral 
strength  and  grandeur.  The  religion  of  the  Jews,  in  its  primitive 
purity,  true  and  divine,  after  all,  was  local  and  temporary,  beings 
adapted  to  the  peculiar  condition  of  the  Hebrew  race,  and  prepara- 
tory to  something  better  aiid  more  enduring. 

There  was  needed,  then,  for  man,  as  man,  a  system  of  religion, 
simple,  spiritual,  plastic,  universal — a  religion  adapted  to  human 
■  nature  in  all  its  phases,  and  thus  fitted  for  constant  and  unlimited 
expansion. 

Such  is  Christianity,  so  generous  and  comprehensive  in  its  whole 
character  and  aims,  bringing  God  to  man  in  all  the  fullness  of  His 
love  and  power,  as  the  Universal  Father,  and  bringing  man  to  God, 
as  the  child  of  eternity ;  knowing,  therefore,  none  high,  none  low, 
none  rich  or  poor,  bond  or  free,  but  treating  all  as  souls,  partakers 
of  the  same  guilt,  heirs  of  the  same  immortality. 

Hence,  it  has  found  a  response  wherever  it  has  found  men,  whether 
on  the  banks  of  the  Jordan,  or  in  the  depths  jof  Scythian  forests,  be- 
neath the  shadow  of  the  Parthenon,  or  on  the  rock-bound  coast  of 
New  England.  Those  who  proclaimed  it  at  first  went  everywhere 
preaching  the  Word.    They  addressed  men  as  guilty  sinners,  yet  with 


SOWING    BESIDE   ALL   WATERS.  307 

a  poweror  capacity  of  endless  life.  Multitudes,  of  every  name  and 
nation,  heard  this  and  believed.  The  heart  of  man  everywhere  met 
the  heart  of  God.  The  inhabitants  of  Palestine,  Greeks  and  Romans, 
Cretes  and  Arabians,  Elamites  and  the  dwellers  in  ]^Iesopotamia,  Par- 
thians  and  Cyrenians,  dusky  Ethiops  and  the  dwellers  on  the  Nile, 
were  made  "  new  creatures  in  Christ  Jesus."  Far  off  in  the  depths 
of  India,  and  amid  the  wilds  of  Scandinavia,  men  and  women  felt  the 
life-giving  grace.  "  There  is  not  a  nation,"  says  Justin  jMartyr,  in 
the  first  half  of  the  second  century,  "  either  of  Greek  or  barbarian,  or 
any  other  name,  even  of  those  who  wander  in  tribes  or  live  in  t-ents, 
among  whom  prayers  and  thanksgivings  are  not  ofi'ered  to  the  Father 
and  Creator  of  the  Universe,  in  the  name  of  the  crucified  Jesus."  So, 
also,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  a  little  later,  contrasting  the  doctrine 
of  the  Cross  with  the  speculations  of  the  philosophers,  narrow  in 
their  range  and  limited  in  their  influence,  says  :  "  The  philosophers 
were  confined  to  Greece  and  to  their  particular  retainers,  but  the 
doctrine  of  Christianity  did  not  remain  in  Judea,  but  is  spread 
through  the  whole  world,  in  every  nation  and  village  and  city,  con- 
verting both  whole  families  and  separate  individuals,  having  already 
brought  over  to  the  truth  not  a  few  of  the  philosophers  themselves." 

The  same  thing  has  occurred  in  modern  times.  So  that,  could  we 
pass  round  the  world,  we  should  hear  hymns  to  Christ,  whether  we 
lingered  under  the  walls  of  the  Burman  pagoda,  threaded  the  Karen 
jungles,  sat  under  the  banyan  of  India,  or  climbed  the  heights  of  the 
Syrian  hills.  At  one  time,  you  might  hear  them  floating  from  the 
burning  sands  of  Africa ;  at  another,  from  the  coral  reefs  of  Polyne- 
sian isles. 

Such,  then,  is  the  general  reply  to  the  question.  Where  shall  we 
soic  ? 

But  the  words  of  our  text  suggest  a  yet  more  specific  answer,  and 
one  involving  considerations  of  the  highest  practical  moment. 
"  Blessed  are  ye  that  sow  beside  all  toaters."  The  field,  indeed,  is 
the  world,  but  it  must  be  approached  and  occupied  in  a  certain 
order,  and  in  specific  directions.  So  that  in  these  words  is  hid- 
den a  profound  practical  philosophy,  suggesting  the  necessity  of 
working  outwardly,  in  all  directions,  from  some  great  centre  or  cen- 
tres, along  the  chief  lines  of  social^and  commercial  influence. 

And  it  is  curious  to  observe  how,  corresponding  to  this,  the  phys- 
ical world  has  been  prepared  for  the  abode  of  man ;  for  everywhere 


308  SOWING   BESIDE   ALL   WATERS. 

we  fiud  the  most  admirable  adaptation  of  its  physical  aspects  and 
resources  to  the  natural  and  even  spiritual  wants  of  the  race.  Over 
all  the  face  of  the  earth,  for  example,  we  find  a  stupendous  prep- 
aration for  a  complete  system  of  water-works,  in  high  mountain 
ranges  and  table  lands,  with  corresponding  depressions  and  declivi- 
ties, not  simply  to  supply  the  requisite  moisture  and  fertility,  but  to 
bring  the  whole  world  into  intimate  social  and  spiritral  relations. 
Apparently  dividing  mankind  into  hostile  communiticv,  the  great 
oceans  and  seas  actually  bring  them  together,  and  forfii  the  highway 
of  nations. 

Within  a  narrower  sphere,  see  how  wonderfully,  linked  the  diiferent 
parts  of  a  country,  and  sometimes  of  different  contiguous  countries, 
by  a  network  of  beautiful  inland  seas,  lakes,  and  rivers ;  so  that  the 
face  of  the  earth  is  checkered  by  the  great  water-courses  over  which 
speed  the  commerce  and  population,  the  life  and  intelligence  of  man- 
kind. Railroads,  themselves,  are  mere  appendages  of  rivers  and 
oceans,  to  bring  them  into  closer  and  more  pei-fect  connection. 
Around  and  through  all  lands,  God  has  poured  His  tides,  "  where 
go  the  swift  ships,"  freighted  with  merchandise,  and  not  unfre- 
quently,  in  these  latter  days,  with  the  seed  of  truth  to  be  sown  broad- 
cast on  all  heathen  shores. 

.  The  Gospel,  then,  must  be  preached  and  its  institutions  planted 
beside  all  waters,  amid  crowded  and  busy  populations,  in  all  the 
great  centres  and  avenues  of  life. 

The  mdthod  is  to  start  from  some  chief  points  of  influence,  and 
advance  along  the  streams  and  seas  where  men  do  most  congregate, 
to  proceed  from  land  to  land,  systematically  and  orderly,  as  God  shall 
direct,  to  take  possession  of  the  world.  It  is  of  little  use  to  main- 
tain a  sort  of  guerilla  warfare,  with  a  few  scattered  tribes  on  the  out- 
skirts of  society,  while  the  great  nations  are  left  behind.  Not  from 
the  circumference  to  the  centre,  but  from  the  centre  to  the  circum- 
ference, is  the  method  of  nature  and  of  providence. 

In  this  view,  the  procedure  of  Christ  and  His  apostles  is  most  in- 
structive. He  came  from  heaven  freighted  with  immortal  seed, 
which,  in  tears  and  blood  and  agony.  He  sowed  in  one  of  the  chief 
centres  of  the  world.  Lying  on  the  eastern  shores  of  .the  "  middle 
sea,"  between  Europe  on  the  one  hand  and  Asia  on  the  other,  having 
Egypt  and  Africa  on  the  south,  and  Rome  on  the  west,  Judea,  insig- 
nificant in  itself;  formed  a  centre  from  which  the  seed  of  divine 


SOWING   BESIDE   ALL   WATERS.  309 

truth  spread  on  all  the  wings  of  the  Avind,  on  all  the  streams  of  time. 
Yonder  you  behold  the  Divine  Redeemer  on  the  banks  of  the  sacred 
Jordan,  anon  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem ;  then  by  the  shores  of  the 
lake  of  Galilee ;  then  in  the  land  of  Zebulon  and  Naphtali,  by  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  about  the  coasts  of  Tyre  and  Sidon. 
From  the  temple,  according  to  the  symbolic  language  of  the  prophet, 
flow  the  deepening  and  expanding  waters  of  life,  to  diverse  and  dis- 
tant seas. 

The  disciples  of  our  Lord  follow  in  His  steps.  After  preaching 
and  baptizing  by  all  the  streams  of  Palestine,  we  trace  them  around 
all  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  the  seat  of  ancient  empires. 
Then  we  see  them  on  the  banks  of  the  Ilissus  and  the  Tiber,  and 
afterwards  on  those  of  the  Rhine,  the  Rhone,  and  the  Elbe,  where 
churches  of  Christ  were  planted  about  the  close  of  the  second  cen- 
tury. On  the  other  side  of  the  world,  we  find  them  preaching  and 
baptizing  by  Abana  and  Pharpar,  rivers  of  Damascus,  coasting  around 
the  whole  of  Asia  the  Less,  from  Jerusalem  round  about  unto  Illyri- 
cum,  and  especially  in  those  seats  of  ancient  commerce,  where  Greeks, 
Jews,  and  barbarians,  were  gathered  for  business  or  pleasure,  Antioeh, 
Ephesus,  and  Smyrna.  Soon  after,  we  find  them  sowing  the  seed 
of  the  Kingdom  by  the  water-courses  of  the  Nile,  in  the  cities  of 
Carthage  and  Alexandria.  They  travelled  far  eastward  to  the  banks 
of  the  Euphrates,  by  the  shores  of  the  Caspian  sea,  and  some  say, 
towards  the  close  of  the  third  or  the  fourth  century,  as  far  east  as 
the  Ganges.  Monuments  of  their  labors,  in  later  times,  have  been 
found  in  Assyria,  in  the  region  of  the  Nestorians,  in  India,  and  even 
in  China. 

Thus  the  truth  was  spread  '^  from  the  rivers  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth  " — from  Palestine  to  Rome;  from  Rome  to  Gaul,  Germany,  and 
Spain;  and  thence  to  the  Ultima  Thule  of  the  British  Isles.  From 
England  and  Holland,  it  has  come  to  this  new  world  of  the  West, 
over  which  it  has  spread  from  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic,  by  the 
banks  of  the  Merrimac  and  the  Connecticut,  to  the  Bay  of  New 
York  and  the  lordly  Hudson,  whence  it  has  gone,  mainly  by  mis- 
sionary labor,  along  the  valley  of  the  Mohawk,  to  the  shores  of  Erie 
and  Ontario,  and  thence  far  west  to  the  Father  of  Waters.  But  not 
there  alone,  but  farther  and  farther  still,  along  all  the  lines  of  travel 
and  business,  until  now  the  song  of  salvation  mingles  with  the  dash 
of  the  Pacific  Ocean. 


310  SOWING   BESIDE   ALL   WATERS. 

III.  Our  tliird  question,  When  are  we  to  soio  ?  is  easily  answered. 
For,  in  the  domain  of  religion,  all  times  are  seasons  of  sowing — at 
early  morn  and  dewy  eve,  in  spring-time  and  summer,  in  autumn  and 
winter,  alike. 

True,  indeed,  there  are  certain  grand  transitional  eras  in  the  history 
both  of  individuals  and  of  communities,  which  may  be  regarded,  in 
a  special  sense,  as  their  spring  or  seed-time. 

Such  was  the  era  in  which  Christ  and  His  apostles  ''  filled  the 
world  with  their  doctrine.''  Such  was  the  period  of  the  Reformation 
in  the  sixteenth  century.  And  is  not  the  present,  in  nearly  all  lands, 
pre-eminently  such  a  time  ? 

Look  around  you  and  see !  Is  there  a  nation  anywhere  wholly 
closed  against  the  truth  ?  Is  not  the  long  winter  of  despotism  even 
in  heathen  lands  giving  way?  Is  not  the  whole  world  somewhat 
awake,  impressible,  expectant?  For  the  first  time  we  can  penetrate, 
with  the  seed  of  God,  to  the  very  depths  of  Africa.  There  is  riot  a 
portion  of  India  to  which  we  cannot  convey  the  Word  of  life.  All 
Europe  is  in  a  transition  state.  Spring  is  stirring,  amid  the  snows 
of  winter,  on  the  banks  of  the  Danube,  through  the  Alps  of  Switzer- 
land and  Italy,  and  among  the  vinefields  of  Etruria  and  France. 
The  cold  winds  of  tyranny  and  priestcraft  may  check  the  progress 
of  spring,  aiid  throw  it  back  apparently  into  the  bosom  of  winter; 
but  waters  are  gathering  in  the  hills,  soft  winds  are  stealing  through 
the  valleys;  once  more  the  frosts  will  dissolve,  the  torrents  will 
sweep  fram  the  mountains  and  roll  over  the  plains.  France,  Ger- 
many, and  even  Italy,  will  yet  rejoice  in  the  summer  of  freedom  and 
hope. 

And  what  shall  I  say  of  this  "  free  land  "  of  ours,  with  its  teeming 
myriads  and  throbbing  life  ? 

0 !  never  in  the  history  man  was  there  a  season  of  such  wondrous 
movement  and  promise  as  the  present.  The  nations,  aroused  and 
agitated  by  the  new  forces  of  discovery  and  revolution,  of  scientific 
and  commercial  development,  of  free  thought  and  daring  enterprise, 
everywhere  invite  the  labors  and  prayers  of  the  church.  The  enemy 
too  is  up  and  busy  at  the  rising  and  the  setting  sun,  sowing  tares 
over  all  the  open  fields.  Even  in  India,  as  well  as  in  Europe  and  in 
this  country,  infidelity  and  superstition  are  at  their  work  of  death, 
and,  if  the  hosts  of  God  are  not  watchful  and  diligent,  will  darken 
the  face  of  the  earth.     Let  none  then  draw  back,  let  none  slacken 


SOWING   BESIDE   ALL   WATERS.  311 

in  the  glorious  work  of  sowing  the  seed  of  God  beside  all  waters. 
"  In  the  morning  sow  thy  seed,  and  in  the  evening  withhold  not 
thou  thy  hand;  for  thou  canst  not  tell  which  shall  prosper,  this  or 
that,  or  whether  both  shall  be  alike  good." 

TV.  This  naturally  brings  us  to  our  next  but  not  least  important 
question,  How  are  ice  to  sow?  Patiently  and  perseveringly,  of  course 
every  one  will  say;  for  in  what  great  enterprise  are  these  qualities 
more  imperatively  needed  ?  Years,  ages,  may  roll  by  before  the  glo- 
rious harvest;  but  it  will  come  at  last.  "Ye  have  need  of  patience;" 
for  the  spring  is  often  cold  and  backward,  and  even  tempestuous. 
"  Little  by  little  "  was  the  motto  of  a  great  scholar,  and  little  by 
little  will  the  season  advance,  and  little  by  little  must  the  seed  be 
sown  beside  all  waters. 

But  not  only  patiently  and  perseveringly,  but  generously  and 
bountifully,  with  some  due  proportion  to  the  zeal  that  animates  our 
heart,  and  the  sublime  results  to  be  achieved.  The  "  Expect  great 
things  from  God,"  in  Carey's  immortal  sermon,  was  followed  by  its 
counterpart — "  Attempt  great  things  for  God."  It  would  be  absurd 
to  go  forth  to  the  conquest  of  a  great  country  with  one  or  two  strag- 
gling battalions  and  a  few  rusty  cannon !  What  folly  to  sow  a  bushel 
of  corn  in  a  thousand-acre  field  !  But,  alas  !  are  we  not  sometimes, 
in  this  grand  enterprise  of  occupying  the  world  with  the  religion  of 
Christ,  about  as  foolish  as  this  ?  How  slender  and  inadequate  our 
means;  how  meagre  and  thinly  scattered  our  seed !  A  few  handfuls 
here  and  there,  most  precious  I  grant,  and  occasionally  ripening 
abundantly  in  the  far  wilderness ;  but  this  is  not  the  sowing  beside 
all  waters,  which  is  to  fill  the  world  with  the  glory  of  the  Lord. 

The  Lord  loveth  a  cheerful  giver;  He  loveth  also  a  cheeiful,  free- 
hearted worker,  who,  with  noble  generosity,  scatiers  broadcast  the 
seed  of  life  beside  all  waters.  "  Freely  ye  have  received,  freely  give." 
He  that  hoards  corn  when  it  is  needed  for  sowing,  deserves  a  double 
curse;  for  he  inflicts  a  double  injury.  Open  then  the  granaries 
stored  with  the  sacred  treasure,  and  let  the  Word  of  life  be  scattered 
freely  in  all  lands,  and  in  due  time  the  harvest  will  "shake  like 
Lebanon." 

Hence,  in  conclusion,  we  linger  a  moment  upon  the  blessedness  of 
such  a  course.  "  Blessed  are  ye  that  sow  beside  all  waters."  Twice 
blessed  !  nay,  thrice  and  four  times  blessed  !  Blessed  in  the  heart ; 
for  that,  in  its  generous  quality,  is  a  perrennial  fountain  of  joy ;  blessed 


312  SOWING   BESIDE   ALL   WATEKS. 

in  the  sympathy  and  gratitude  of  others;  blessed  in  the  work  itself, 
a  work  in  which  angels  might  share;  and  blessed  in  the  hope  of  the 
harvest  to  come. 

Though  it  is  the  springtime,  oft  bleak  and  cheerless,  work  for  God 
is  ever  a  joy.  The  life,  energy,  movement,  of  such  a  season,  are 
themselves  a  compensation.  The  idler  and  pleasure  seeker  is  the 
unhappy  man.  The  laborer,  "  a-field  at  early  morn,"  ploughing  on 
the  mountain's  side,  "  in  glory  and  in  joy,"  or  scattering  the  golden 
seed  in  the  fruitful  meadows,  has  no  time  to  be  wretched.  He  sows 
in  hope  also;  and  in  the  sphere  of  religion,  it  often  happens  that  the 
sower  overtakes  the  reaper — nay,  becomes  the  reaper — iwhile  sowers 
and  reapers  rejoice  together.  Ah !  what  glorious  sheaves  are  gathered 
even  now  in  the  fields  of  toil !  "  He  that  goeth  forth  and  weepeth, 
bearing  precious  seed,  shall  come  again,  bringing  his  sheaves  with 
him."  Even  at  tlie  close  of  life's  weary  day,  the  sower  has  wept 
tears  of  joy  as  he  gazed  upon  the  fair  harvest  waving  before  his  eyes. 
"  The  wilderness  and  the  solitary  place  are  made  glad,  the  desert 
rejoices  and  blossoms  as  the  rose."  Who  can  describe  the  thrill  of 
sacred  delight  which  passed  through  the  frame  of  the  dying  Board- 
man,  when,  borne  upon  a  litter,  he  gazed  upon  the  Karen  converts 
going  down  to  the  river  to  be  baptized  in  the  name  of  Jesus  ?  The 
death  of  Gordon  Hall,  far  from  kindred  and  home,  was  like  the  coro-  ' 
nation  of  a  king.  His  last  words  were  a  sort  of  triumphal  shout: 
"  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost !  " 

And  what  shall  I  say  of  the  last  harvest,  the  final  coming  and 
kingdom  of  the  Lord  ?  "  The  harvest  is  the  end  of  the  world;  the 
reapers  are  the  angels;"  and  the  result,  unnumbered  myriads  of 
glorified  spirits.  ''For  the  ransomed  of  the  Lord  shall  return  and 
come  to  Zion,  with  songs,  and' everlasting  joy  upon  their  heads;  they 
shall  obtain  joy  and  gladness,  sorrow  and  sighing  shall  flee  away." 

Then  the  sea  shall  give  up  the  dead  that  are  in  it — the  silent  wil- 
derness and  solitary  graveyard  among  the  mountains,  or  by  the  lone 
heathen  river,  the  once  populous  city,  and  the  opeij  field,  shall  give 
up  the  dead  that  are  in  them.  They  shall  come,  myriads  upon 
myriads  from  all  lands,  and  from  all  seas,  beautiful  as  angels  and 
expectant  of  glory.  For  the  seed  of  God  has  ripened,  and  the  last 
field  is  reaped.  Earth's  weary  sowers  are  there ;  but  oh !  how 
changed,  how  glorified,  as  they  mingle  with  the  happy  throng  as- 
cending "  the  shining  way,"  chanting  with  angels  the  song  of  the 


SOWING   BESIDE   ALL   WATERS.  313 

harvest !  •  In  many  mingling  tones  as  of  a  great  multitude  from  all 
lauds,  singing  the  one  song — ''  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  to  receive  honor 
and  glory  and  blessing." 

Ah !  well  may  we  say,  as  by  faith  we  descry  them  from  afar,  "  Who 
are  these,  and  whence  come  they  ?  "  Lo,  these  are  they — the  Lord's 
sowers,  blessed  reapers  now — who,  in  toil  and  tears,  scattered  seed 
by  all  waters;  and  having  washed  their  robes  and  made  them  white 
in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  are  now  before  the  throne  of  God,  and 
praise  Him  night  and  day  in  His  temple.  Yonder  is  Luther  with 
his  Germans  singing,  Gloria  in  Excelsis !  Yonder  is  Carey  with 
his  Hindoos,  and  among  them  Krishnu  Paul,  singing  as  of  old, 

"Oh  thou,  my  soul,  forget  no  more 
The  friend  Avho  all  thy  sorrows  bore  !  " 

Yonder  too  is  Judson  with  his  Burmans,  glorious  now  as  angels 
of  God,  and  around  theni,  and  stretching  far  away  among  ''  the  shining 
ones,"  many  dear  forms  long  missed  on  earth,  now  glorified  in  the 
heavens.  Tears,  anguish,  death,  all  forgotten,  swallowed  up  and  lost 
in  the  joy  of  the  harvest.  Happy  sowers  !  Happy  reapers  !  Blessed 
are  ye  that  have  sown  beside  all  waters  1 

Bouse  thee  then,  oh  my  brother !  to  the  sublime  work  !  Onward! 
right  onward !  thou  man  of  God,  sowing  immortal  seed  beside  all 
waters — 

"  And  thou  an  angel's  happiness  shalt  know ;  , 
The  good  begun  by  thee  shall  onward  flow, 
In  many  a  branching  stream,  and  wider  grow. 

The  seed,  that  in  these  few  and  fleeting  years, 
Thy  hands  unsparing  and  unwearied  sow, 
Shall  spring  to  life  in  amaranthine  flowers. 
And  yield  thee  fruits  divine  in  heaven's  immortal  bowers." 


-u. 


'^y'l^i^-t 


TRUTH. 


utli,  by  i 


he 


for  whJ 


.1    IvLTJifM.    lU 

flirf"'!-'.  :iTl 


his  liut:' 


■.  nt.  disco  t. 


GROUND  OF  THE  TRUTH.  317 

'  "who,  in  heart  and  life,  are  conformed  to  the  will  of  God.  It  is  not 
the  badge  we  wear,  nor  the  name  by  which  we  arc  called,  nor  the 
way  in  which  we  administer  or  submit  to  ordinances,  nor  the  church 
authority  to  which  we  yield  obedience,  but  the  image  of  Christ  en- 
stamped  upon  the  soul,  that  gives  us  a  name  and  a  place  among  those 
who  are  the  people  of  God  upon  earth,  and  who  will  sit  down  with 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  So  that  the 
church  visible  is  composed  of  all  who  profess  the  true  religion,  and 
their  children ;  and  the  church  invisible,  of  all  who  truly  possess  it. 
Let  any  individual,  rejecting  these  views,  go  out  in  search  of  the 
church,  and,  like  the  visionary  in  pursuit  of  the  philosopher's  stone, 
he  is  in  search  of  an  object  he  will  never  find,  and  will  in  all  proba^ 
bility  take  up  with  something  which  has  the  least  possible  claim  to 
it.  It  is  the  way  of  God,  with  those  who  reject  the  simple  truth,  to 
give  them  up  to  strong  delusion  to  believe  a  lie.  When  men  reject 
the  truth,  they  soon  become  fiery  zealots  for  a  fiction. 

II.  This  church  is  the  house  of  God. 

"  That  thou  mayestknow  how  to  behave  thyself  in  the  house  of  God." 
The  tabernacle  in  the  wilderness,  and,  after  it  was  taken  down,  the  tem- 
ple, was  called  the  house  or  the  habitation  of  God,  because  there  the 
symbol  of  the  divine  presence  resided.  And  whilst  under  our  dispen- 
sation no  material  building  is  called  the  house  of  God,  yet  the  language 
is  applied  in  figure  to  the  church  of  God,  as  we  have  just  explained  it: 
believers  in  Christ,  joined  together  for  His  worship  according  to  the 
forms  of  the  Gospel.  Of  this  the  following  passage  is  the  proof  and 
illustration,  in  which  Paul  thus  addresses  himself  to  the  converts 
from  the  Gentiles  :  '•'  Ye  are  no  more  strangers  and  foreigners,  but 
fellow  citizens  with  the  saints,  and  of  the  household  of  God ;  and 
are  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus 
Christ  Himself  being  the  chief  corner-stone,  in  whom  all  the  build- 
ing fitly  framed  together  groweth  unto  an  holy  temple  in  the  Lord, 
in  whom  ye  are  also  builded  together  for  an  habitation  of  God  through 
the  Spirit."  (Ephesians,  ii,  20,  21.)  The  material  temple  at  Jeru- 
salem was  a  type  of  the  spiritual  church ;  and  as  that  rose  from  its 
elevated  foundations  laid  on  the  rock,  stone  after  stone,  and  plank 
after  plank,  to  its  completeness  and  magnificent  perfection,  so  the 
spiritual  church  rises,  by  the  continued  conversion  of  sinners,  and 
the  progressive  sanctification  of  believers,  and  is  growing  up  unto  an 
holy  temple  in  the  Lord.     And  every  believer,  like  the  stones  and 


318  THE   CHURCH   THE   PILLAR  AND 

timbers  of  a  building,  conduces  to  the  growth,  the  stability,  and  the 
proportions,  of  the  house.  The  wall  must  not  say  to  the  roof,  nor 
the  roof  to  the  wall,  I  have  no  need  of  thee.  The  polished  corner- 
stone must  not  say  to  the  lesser  stones  that  are  hidden  in  the  founda- 
tions, or  in  the  centre  of  walls,  "  I  have  no  need  of  thee."  Each  is 
needful  to  the  stability  and  the  perfection  of  the  whole.  All  are 
fitly  framed  together ;  and  the  building  is  rising  to  its  glorious  com- 
pletion by  the  additions  making  to  it  of  every  believer.  This  house 
of  Grod  is  rising  from  age  to  age,  and  will  only  b'^  completed  in 
glory. 

III.  This  house  is  the  church  or  the  living  God. 

"Which  is  the  church  of  the  living  God."  Here,  it  may  be,  the 
church  of  the  living  God  is  placed  in  significant  contrast  with  the  dead 
idols  of  the  heathen.  Timothy  was  in  Ephesus,  where  was  the  magnifi- 
cent temple  of  Diana,  and  where  was  the  miraculous  image  which  all 
the  world  worshipped.  There  stood  the  image  in  its  magnificent  abode, 
without  life,  sense,  or  motion ;  dead  as  the  wood,  or  the  stone,  from 
which  it  was  made  ;  and  without  any  power  of  imparting  any  benefit 
to  its  world  of  worshippers.  It  saw  not  their  sins — it  heard  not  the 
cries  of  their  pagan  revelry — the  fermenting  corruption  of  their 
hearts,  it  knew  not;  and  whatever  chastisement  they  deserved,' it 
had  no  hand  to  inflict  them.  The  image  was  polished,  and  beautiful, 
but  it  was  dead.  And  the  idols  and  gods  of  the  heathen  are  all 
dead.  And  the  living  God,  whose  centre  is  everywhere,  and  His 
circumference  nowhere,  stands  out  in  the  broadest  contrast  with 
these.  Having  life  in  Himself,  He  is  uncreated,  but  He  is  the 
fountain  of  life,  to  all  beings.  He  gives  life,  and  breath,  and  all 
things,  to  His  creatures.  It  is  in  Him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have 
our  being.  As  the  living  God,  He  is  everywhere  present,  and  sends 
out  the  p\ilsations  of  life  to  the  most  remote  fibres  of  His  own  infi- 
nite creation.  And  especially,  as  the  God  of  grace,  is  He  the  author 
of  eternal  life  to  all  who  believe.  The  temple  of  Solomon  was  con- 
structed of  dead  stones  and  timbers;  and  so  was  the  temple  of  Di- 
ana, and  all  the  temples  of  heathenism.  But  '*  the  house  of  God," 
"  the  church  of  the  living  God,"  is  built  up  of  living  stones,  and 
living  timbers.  God's  spiritual  house  is  constructed  of  those  whom 
He  has  made  spiritually  alive.  He  is  the  living  God — and  the  ma- 
terials of  His  house  are  all  alive  unto  Him.  He  enters  His  house, 
not  like  a  pagan  or  papal  priest  parading  his  embroideries  and  vest- 


GROUND  OF  THE  TRUTH.  319 

•  ments  amid  lifeless  walls,  and  beams,  and  pillars,  and  paintings,  and 
statuary ;  but  like  a  fatlier  coming  among  his  own  living  children, 
loving  and  embracing  all,  and  loved  and  embraced  of  all.  He  comes, 
the  living  God,  into  a  living  temple,  to  impart  new  life  to  all  who 
compose  it,  that  they  may  be  co-workers  with  Him  to  extend  spiritual 
life  throughout  our  world,  which  is  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins. 

The  heathen  serve  dumb  idols,  but  ours  is  the  living  God.  He 
sees  our  faults — He  marks  our  sins — He  hears  our  complaints — He 
knows  our  hearts.  But  He  is  our  Father — He  has  for  us  a  father's 
heart.  And  His  church,  from  its  foundations,  up,  up,  to  the  top- 
most stone,  should  be  alive  unto  Him.  Thus  may  His  church  be 
alive  unto  Him ! 

IV.  The  church  of  the  living  God  is  the  pillar  and 

GROUND   OF   THE   TRUTH. 

The  words  which  we  render  "  pillar  and  ground  "  are  nearly  iden- 
tical in  meaning;  or  they  may  be  interpreted  so  as  simply  to  give 
intensity  to  the  word  pillar — as  a  very  strong  pillar,  an  unfailing 
pillar— a  pillar  that  cannot  be  moved,  so  strong  are  its  foundations, 
and  so  strongly  is  it  built. 

We  will  not  weary  you  with  detail  as  to  the  interpretations  given 
to  the  word  "  pillar,"  and  as  to  the  variety  of  opinions  as  to  what  it 
refers.  Because  Timothy  was  left  in  Ephesus  to  preach,  defend,  and 
support  the  truth,  some  would  make  him  the  pillar.  Whilst,  in  a 
high  sense,  he  was  a  pillar,  as  is  every  true  minister  of  the  Word, 
yet,  were  Timothy  now  living,  he  would  promptly  decline  the  honor 
which  these  interpreters  would  confer  upon  him.  Others  would 
make  God  the  pillar ;  but  whilst  He  is  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the 
universe,  a  true  interpretation  forbids  this.  Others  would  make  'Hhe 
mystery  of  Godliness,"  in  the  subsequent  verse,  the  pillar ;  but  this 
would  require  a  new  arrangement  of  the  entire  passage.  We  believe 
the  true  meaning  to  be,  that  which  lies  on  the  very  face  of  the  text, 
that  the  church,  not  the  church  of  Home,  not  the  church  of  Eng- 
land, not  the  church  of  Scotland,  not  any  particular  church,  but  the 
church  of  the  living  God,  made  up  of  all  the  true  churches  of  Christ 
throughout  our  world,  is  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth ;  and 
that  glorious  church  is  here  brought  out  in  contrast  with  the  temple 
of  the  lifeless  image  of  Diana,  which  was  the  pillar  and  the  support 
of  falsehood,  idolatry,  and  vice. 

In  the  porch  of  the  temple  of  Solomon  were  two  magnificent  pil- 


320  THE   CHURCH   THE   PILLAR   AND 

lars,  between  wliicli  the  worshippers  entered  into  the  splendid  inte- 
rior. The  one  was  called  Jachin,  the  other,  Boaz ;  and  it  is  said 
that  upon  these  pillars  the  prophets  hung  up  all  their  prophecies, 
written  upon  parchment,  that  they  might  be  read  by  all  who  entered 
the  temple  to  worship.  May  it  not  be  to  this  the  apostle  alludes  in 
our  text  ?  And  if  so,  how  beautifully  it  illustrates  the  way  and  man- 
ner in  which  the  church  is  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth  !  It 
is  to  hold  up  the  truth  of  God,  to  be  known  and  read  of  all  men  ! 

The  temples  of  the  heathen  were  splendid  structures,  as  is  proved 
by  those  of  them  which  yet  remain,  and  by  the  ruins  of  others.  Who 
can  even  now  wander  amid  their  ruins  without  being  awe-struck  with 
their  magnitude  and  beauty,  ere  they  were  crushed  by  the  ruthless 
hand  of  barbarism  !  These  temples  were  crowded  with  pillars  sup- 
porting their  ample  roof,  some  of  which  are  models  in  architecture 
to  the  present  day !  Upon  these  pillars  the  laws  and  edicts  of  kings, 
and  emperors,  and  governments,  were  hung,  to  be  read  by  the  people! 
And  when  the  people  desired  to  know  the  laws  and  edicts  to  which 
their  attention  and  obedience  were  required,  they  resorted  to  the 
pillars  in  the  temples  which  held  them  up  for  their  perusal.  May 
it  not  be  to  this  the  apostle  alludes  in  our  text?  And  if  so,  how  beau- 
tifully it  illustrates  the  way  and  manner  in  which  the  church  is  the 
pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth  !  It  is  to  hold  forth  the  truth  of  God, ' 
to  be  read  and  known  of  all  men  !  And  we  are  confident,  as  to  the 
essential  truth,  that  here  we  have  the  mind  of  the  Spirit  in  our  text. 
The  church,  not  the  church  papal,  not  the  church  protestant,  nor 
any  branch  or  segment  of  either,  but  the  church  catholic,  composed 
of  all  who  profess  the  true  religion,  is  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the 
truth. 

Let  this  be  accepted,  and'  then,  in  view  of  the  illustrations  just 
given,  there  are  some  weighty  truths  that  follow. 

1.  The  jjiiiar  neither  viaJccs  nor  modijles  the  laios.  These  are  en- 
acted by  supreme  authorit}'-,  and  were  hung  on  the  pillars  to  be  read 
by  the  people.  So  the  church  has  no  right  to  m;ike  new  laws,  or 
to  modify  those  already  given  by  God.  The  law  of  the  Lord  is 
perfect,  and  it  must  be  preserved  from  all  additions  or  subtractions; 
and  the  one  simple  duty  of  the  church  is  to  hold  forth  the  laws  of 
the  King  of  Zion,  in  their  purity,  to  be  known  and  read  of  all  men ! 
If  this  principle  is  surrendered,  our  religious  liberty  is  gone — for 
religious  liberty  consists  in  refusing  to  submit  to  any  authority  but 


GROUND  OF  THE  TRUTH.  321 

that  of  God — in  refusing  to  receive,  as  of  divine  authority,  anything 
not  plainly  taught  in  the  Bible.  "Would  that  all  contrivers  and 
lovers  of  novelties,  who  are  acting  on  the  supposition  that  tlie  law 
of  the  Lord  is  not  perfect,  might  remember  this ! 

2.  The  'pUlar  gives  no  efficacy  to  the  laws.  It  cannot  make  men 
read  them,  nor  believe  them,  nor  obey  them.  It  holds  them  up,  and 
then  men  disobey  them  at  their  peril.  So  the  church  gives  no  effi- 
cacy to  the  truth ;  that  is  the  work  of  the  Spirit ;  and  all  pretension 
to  such  power  must  go  into  the  category  of  old  wives'  fables.  We 
regard  it  not  merely  as  pretentious  and  deceptive,  but  as  blasphe- 
mous. The  simple  mission  of  the  church  is — and  it  is  a  glorious 
mission — to  hold  up  the  truth,  and  the  whole  truth.  The  power 
which  gives  it  efficacy  is  from  God.  The  church  has  to  prophecy  to 
the  dry  bones,  and  then  to  pray,  "  Come  from  the  four  winds,  0 
breath,  and  breathe  upon  these  slain,  that  they  may  live." 

3.  Nor  can  the  pillar  suppress  the  laws  of  the  King,  and  pnt  up 
others  in  their  place,  as  more  conducive  to  the  good  of  the  suhject. 
This  would  be  virtually  calling  into  question  the  authority  of  the 
King,  and  dethroning  Him;  as  the  power  which  repeals,  modifies,  or 
enacts  the  laws,  is  the  supreme  power.  And  this  is  the  crying,  hor- 
rible sin  of  Rome,  and  which  subjects  it  to  the  curse  of  anathema, 
maranatha.  It  hides  the  truth  from  the  people,  and  teaches  them, 
for  doctrines,  the  commandments  of  men.  It  puts  up  a  pillar  of  its 
own,  and,  putting  aside  the  revelation  of  God,  it  covers  that  pillar 
with  its  own  teachings ;  many  of  which  it  is  as  difficult  to  compre- 
hend as  the  hieroglyphics  of  Egypt,  and  when  understood  they  arc 
contemptibly  frivolous,  and  only  deserving  a  place  with  the  bones 
of  St.  Quietus. 

4.  The  truth  lohich  the  pillar  is  to  hold  up  for  tiniversal  jpcrusal  is 
not  any  fomiularu  of  doctrine  of  human  contrivance.  These  are  very 
well  in  their  place;  and  we  favor  creeds  and  confessions  because 
they  embody  the  great  truths  which  the  diifercnt  branches  of  the 
church  receive  as  the  teachings  of  the  Scripture.  Nor  have  we  ever 
known  any  violently  opposed  to  them,  but  the  propagators  of  error, 
to  whose  success  they  opposed  strong  barriers.  Yet  it  is  not  these 
symbols,  but  the  revelations  of  the  Spirit  by  prophets  and  apostles, 
as  contained  in  the  Bible,  which  the  church  is  to  hold  forth.  Sym- 
bols are  nothing,  but  as  they  are  based  upon  the  revelations  of  God ; 
they  arc  worse  than  nothing,  when  they  either  oppose,  pervert,  or 

21 


322  THE   CHURCH   THE   PILLAR  AND 

obscure  them.  And  by  preserving  the  Scriptures  in  their  integrity — 
by  preserving  their  doctrines  and  institutions  from  corruption — by 
transmitting  them  from  age  to  age  in  their  original  purity — by  truth- 
ful translations  of  them  into  the  tongues  of  all  people — by  her  eflPorts 
to  send  the  Bible,  and  the  ministers  of  God  to  preach  it,  to  all  the 
tribes  and  kindreds  of  the  earth — the  church  of  the  living  God  has 
shown  and  is  now  showing  itself  to  be  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the 
truth. 

These  are  all  weighty  truths,  and  of  the  highest  importance  to  the 
being  of  the  church,  and  to  the  well  being  of  the  race.  The  high- 
est temporal  and  spiritual  interests  of  man  are  intserwoven  with  the 
perfect  purity,  and  the  entire  fi'cedom,  and  the  universal  circulation, 
of  the  truth  of  God. 

Now,  the  application  of  all  this  is  important  and  obvious. 

1.  /;;  settles  the  questions  as  to  lohat  is  the  church,  and  where  is  the 
church.  In  its  visible  form,  it  is  composed  of  those  who  profess  the 
true  faith — in  its  invisible,  of  all  those  truly  collected  unto  Christ. 
Nor  is  it  confined  to  the  domains  of  popery,  prelacy,  or  presbytery ; 
it  is  composed  of  all  who  receive  and  practice  the  truth.  The  most 
obscure  believer  on  earth  is  a  part  of  it — and  wherever  a  family,  or 
a  body  of  faithful  men,  are  assembled  for  the  worship  of  God,  therp 
it  is  in  form,  and  in  spirit,  and  in  reality.  The  individual  in  whom 
the  Spirit  dwells  is  a  temple  of  God ;  and  there  may  be  a  church  in 
the  family,  as  well  as  in  the  city,  or  i<i  the  state.  These  are  the  true 
answers  as  to,  What  is  the  church  ?  And  where  is  the  church  ?  In 
no  other  way  have  the  questions  been  ever  answered,  worthy  the  re- 
gard of  an  intelligent  mind. 

2.  It  defines  the  simple  duty  of  the  church.  That  duty  is  to  hold 
forth  and  to  hold  up  the  simple  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  to  be  known 
and  read  of  all  men.  Behold  those  pillars  in  the  temple  a,t  Jerusa- 
lem, covered  with  parchments  containing  the  Will  of  God,  as  revealed 
to  the  prophets,  and  daily  surrounded  by  multitudes  of  anxious 
readers !  There  is  symbolized  the  duty  of  the  entir;?  church.  It  is 
to  hold  forth  and  to  hold  up  the  Word  of  life !  Oh  that  the  heart 
of  the  church,  and  of  its  entire  ministry,  might  be  impressed  with 
this  great  truth,  so  that  we  may  cease  from  sectarian  strife,  and  from 
questions  that  tend  to  no  profit,  and  from  modes  of  reform  which 
only  aggravate  the  evils  they  mean  to  remedy,  and  cause  the  con- 
flicting passions  of  men  to  swell  and  foam  like  the  waves  of  the  sea 


GROUND  OF  THE  TRUTH.  323 

ia  a  storm;  and  that  we  may  turn  our  entire  energies  to  the  spread- 
ins:  of  the  knowlcdire  of  the  truth  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Let  the 
dead  bury  the  dead,  but  the  one  duty  of  the  ministry  is  to  preach 
the  Gospel.  God's  truth  is  the  great  rectifier  of  all  error  and  of  all 
evils.  This  alone  purifies  the  heart.  All  other  reformations  are  but 
partial  and  apparent,  like  the  skin  drawn  over  the  cancerous  sore, 
whilst  its  fiery  roots  are  spreading  within.  Ephraim  must  cease  vex- 
ing Judah,  and  Judah  Ephraim,  about  qviestions  as  to  the  mint, 
anise,  and  cummin;  and  both  must  give  themselves  to  the  holding 
forth  the  Word  of  life  to  all  people. 

And  what  is  the  duty  of  the  church  in  the  aggregate,  is  the  duty 
of  every  member  of  it.  If  the  church  may  be  compared  to  a  tem- 
ple, then  may  its  every  member  be  compared  to  a  pillar  in  that  tem- 
ple. Some  of  these  stand  in  the  porch,  some  arounij  the  altars,  some 
in  very  obscure  corners;  but  the  duty  of  them  all  is  to  hold  up  and 
to  hold  forth  the  "Word  of  truth.  Think  not  that  this  noblest  work 
is  confined  to  the  pulpit.  It  is  the  device  of  hell  to  divide  the 
church  into  castes,  and  to  authorize  only  the  few  to  preach  Christ 
crucified,  and  to  forbid  others  to  tell  those  perishing  around  them 
of  the  way  of  life.  The  Sabbath-school  teacher — the  obscure  mother, 
with  her  children  grouped  around  her,  and  with  her  Bible  on  her 
knee — the  friend  who  deals  faithfully  with  the  soul  of  his  friend — 
the  young  men  banded  together  for  works  of  benevolence  and  mercy — 
these,  no  less  than  the  minister,  are  co-workers  with  God,  are  hold- 
ing forth  the  Word  of  life.  You  may  be  poor  and  obscure,  and  hold 
no  rank  in  the  church;  but  may  not  a  private  in  the  army  fight  as 
valiantly  for  his  country  as  the  officer  that  commands  ?  May  he  not 
die  fighting  for  the  colors  which  he  may  not  carry?  If  it  is  not  his 
business  to  train  recruits,  he  may  enlist  them.  And  to  this  work 
of  enlisting  recruits  for  the  Cross,  the  Gospel  calls  all  who  are  look- 
ing to  the  Cross  for  salvation.  "The  Spirit  and  the  bride  say  come; 
and  let  him  that  hearcth  say  come,  and  let  him  that  is  athirst  come, 
and  whosoever  will,  let  him  take  of  the  water  of  life  freely."  The 
Master  hath  need  of  the  active  service  of  all  His  people.  Multi- 
tudes, even  in  our  most  highly-favored  places,  are  dying  in  their 
sins;  and  though  every  minister  were  as  a  flaming  fire,  and  every 
preacher  a  Whitcfield,  they  could  not  overtake  the  great  work  before 
them.  And  no  person  should  be  considered  as  converted,  unless  so 
converted  as  to  take  a  living,  loving  interest  in  the  conversion  of 


324  THE    CHURCH    THE    PILLAR,    ETC. 

others.  The  g-reat,  grand,  glorious  duty  of  the  church,  and  of  its 
every  member,  from  the  minister  to  the  most  obscure  member,  is  to 
hold  forth  the  "Word  of  life.  When  the  church  and  its  entire  mem- 
bership shall  be  thus  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth,  the  moru 
of  the  millennial  day  has  already  risen  upon  our  world;  and  the  shout 
will  be  soon  heard  rising  from  earth  to  heaven,  and  echoed  back 
again  from  the  heavens  to  earth,  hallelujah,  salvation,  for  the  Lord 
God  omnipotent  reigaeth. 


,^.?^  ZLZI 


FBUITS  A  TES 


leg  no  P; 


iichit: 


(' 


\ 


UlMMRt' 


iOi»< 


I 


forererto 

acfee5s"-»  X 
canrlli 


FRUITS   A   TEST   OF   SYSTEMS,  327 

is  truth.?  One  says,  lo !  here;  another,  lo !  there.  Whom  shall 
we  follow  ? 

Distracted  inquirer,  are  you  honest?  Would  you  find  the  truth? 
Are  you  perplexed  whom  to  follow,  and  anxious  lest  you  go  astray  ? 
Hear  the  words  of  Jesus;  he  suggests  a  test  to  you;  one  which  the 
most  unskillful  may  apply,  and  which  is  infallible. 

The  method  is  short  and  practical :  '^  By  their  fruits  ye  shall 
know  them." 

There  are  other  tests — this  is  the  most  available  and  simple.  Phi- 
losophy is  useful — there  are  ultimate  criteria  of  truth;  but  this  is  the 
sum  of  all.  ''  A  good  tree  cannot  bring  forth  evil  fruit,  neither  can 
a  corrupt  tree  bring  forth  good  fruit.  Wherefore  by  their  fruits  ye 
shall  know  them."  The  labyrinths  of  evidence  may  be  too  intricate; 
the  import  of  doctrines  too  obscure,  too  profound ;  truth  too  inac- 
cessible for  the  comman  mind.  This  rule  lies  level  with  the  feeblest 
capacity.  The  scheme  may  not  be  understood — the  theory  may  be 
incomprehensible ;  the  fruit  is  patent. 

Wisely  did  the  great  blaster  supply  His  disciples  with  this  easy 
and  infallible  test.  It  is  our  wisdom,  amid  all  the  confusion  and 
uncertainty  of  debate  and  polemical  strife,  to  remember  it.  Under 
the  blinding  influence  of  passion,  and  beset  Avith  the  weaknesses  of 
finite  and  limited  powers,  our  logic  often  limps,  and  our  reason 
turns  to  unreason;  but  "grapes  do  never  grow  upon  thorns,  nor  figs 
upon  thistles." 

We  do  not  ignore  reason,  nor  deny  it  its  appropriate  place  in  the 
investigation  of  truth;  we  would  not  prejudice  its  full  and  free  play; 
but  we  insist  that  reason  is  never  more  reason,  never  more  like 
itself,  than  when,  whatever  other  rule  it  employs  on  moral  questions, 
it  falls  back  upon  that  which  is  furnished  here  as  primary  and  ulti- 
mate. 

No  evidence  can  show  that  to  be  trutli  whose  legitimate  working 
is  evil,  nor  the  opposite.  Honoring,  and  holding  in  the  highest  es- 
timation, then,  all  the  kinds  and  variety  of  evidence  by  which  mind 
is  led  to  moral  truth,  and  especially  joying  in  the  fullness  and 
abundance  of  that  proof  which  God  has  been  pleased  to  array  in  sup- 
port of  His  own  revelation ;  proof  comprising  a  long  line  of  most 
illustrious  prophecies,  with  innumerable  miracles  the  most  brilliant 
and  indubitable,  alike  the  utterances  of  a  supernatural  and  divine 
agent;  proof  interwoven  with  the  entire  chain  of  human  history,  and 


328  FRUITS   A   TEST   OF   SYSTEMS. 

overspreading  the  whole  scope  of  the  race ;  proof  internal  and  ex- 
ternal, beaming  on  its  pages  and  inscribed  on  monuments,  speaking 
ft-om  the  earth  and  the  heaven ;  proof  which  for  variety  and  fullness 
has  never  been  equalled  in  any  other  case;  rejoicing,  as  we  do  in  the 
wisdom  and  goodness  of  God,  which  in  this  has  left  all  men  without 
excuse  to  whom  His  revelation  comes,  we  yet  turn  away  from  all 
others,  to  this  one  proof  for  the  present — the  proof  arising  from  the 
fruits  of  the  system. 

Let  us  proceed,  then,  to  apply  this  test  principle  to  the  various 
systems  propounded  by  men,  and  inviting  the  acceptance  of  their 
fellows. 

By  fruits,  is  meant  effects ;  effects  produced  by  the  system  in  the 
minds  and  in  the  external  lives  of  those  who  come  within  its  influ- 
ence ;  effects  extending  from  the  individual  to  society ;  all  the  ef- 
fects resulting  from  the  system,  upon  the  inward  and  outward  life 
of  individuals  and  communities. 

It  is  postulated  that  truth  is  good;  that  it  is  good  working  and 
benign;  that,  so  far  as  it  characterizes  a  system,  the  system  will  have 
a  tendency  to  make  men  wiser  and  purer  and  happier,  to  diminish 
the  evils  and  multiply  the  blessings  of  society,  to  improve  individ- 
ual character^  to  elevate  the  masses,  to  ameliorate  the  asperities  of 
life,  to  invigorate  mind  with  high  and  noble  aims,  and  in  every  pos- 
sible way  to  sweeten  and  sanctify  all  relations,  and  render  the  earth, 
what  it  was  designed  to  be,  the  sanctuary  of  virtue,  the  abode  of 
happiness,  and  the  ante-chamber  of  heaven.  Any  system  producing 
such  effects  is  shown  to  be  good,  and  of  God ;  it  is  the  good  tree  at- 
tested by  its  precious  fruits.  Any  system  or  separate  idea  tending 
in  the  opposite  direction  must  be  condemned  as  evil,  and  as  emana- 
ting from  the  fiither  of  lies,  whose  impress  it  bears. 

But  obvious  as  the  principle  is,  and  easy  of  application,  some  pre- 
caution may  be  needed  in  its  use. 

No  series  of  ideas,  related  as  a  system  of  doctrines,  that  has  ever 
yet  been  conceived  by  man,  is  either  wholly  true,  /or  wholly  false. 
In  the  best,  there  are  some  traces  of  human  imperfection ;  in  the 
most  vicious,  there  is  some  truth.  The  same  is  true  of  their  effects. 
Even  the  divine  system,  which  is  perfect  in  itself,  is  never  so  in  the 
finite  conception.  Hence,  the  extent  to  which  the  principle  can 
apply  is  to  show  the  general  character  of  the  system,  condemning 
or  approving  it  as  a  whole,  and  not  in  every  minute  part.     Minute 


FRUITS   A   TEST    OP   SYSTEMS.  329 

differences  may  exist  between  systems  of  the  same  general  complex- 
ion, and  harmony  on  inferior  grounds  between  those  fundamentally 
adverse.  It  results  that  the  elements  of  truth  are  not  so  directly 
attested  separately,  if  indeed  they  are  attested  at  all,  by  the  effects 
flowing  from  systems,  as  the  general  system  itself. 

A  further  precaution  required  is,  that  as  each  minute  element  of 
doctrine  is  not  verified  by  the  effects  of  several  related  doctrines, 
so  a  system  is  not  to  be  adjudged  by  some  single  effect  which  seems 
to  flow  from  it,  or  by  several  unusual  effects.  A  good  and  whole- 
some law,  impinging  on  a  vicious  state  of  society,  or,  simply,  the 
publication  of  a  most  humane  and  beautiful  sentiment,  may  become 
the  occasion  of  alarming  riots  and  bloodshed ;  the  proclamation  of 
liberty  may  instigate  rebellion  against  oppressive  thrones;  the  coming 
of  Christ,  and  His  benign  ministries,  may  evoke  the  instruments  of 
cruel  and  inhuman  persecutions ;  these  incidental  results  may  not, 
therefore,  be  attributed  to  their  several  antecedents,  as  their  legiti- 
mate effects,  but  must  rather  be  traced  to  the  malignant  resistance 
of  deep-seated  evils. 

Again,  as  a  system  of  doctrine  is  not  to  be  judged  by  some  acci- 
dental effect,  so  neither  is  it  responsible  for  its  abuse  or  misapplica- 
tion or  perversion.  If  zeal  without  knowledge  lead  to  persecution, 
it  will  not  prove  that  it  is  bad  to  be  zealously  affected  for  a  good 
thing;  if  much  learning  sometimes  puffeth  up  and  euge.ndereth  vain 
disputings,  it  will  not  invalidate  the  truth  that  knowledge  is  to  be 
desired,  or  that  for  the  soul  to  be  without  knowledge  is  an  evil;  if 
charity  at  times  extenuates  wrong,  and  withholds  the  punishment 
that  is  due,  thereby  endangering  the  well-being  of  the  innocent,  it 
will  not  show  that  it  is  not  better  than  all  burnt  sacrifices;  if,  because 
of  the  long-suffering  of  God,  the  hearts  of  the  sons  of  men  are  often 
set  in  them  "to  do  evil,  it  will  not  show  that  mercy  can  have  no  place 
in  the  bosom  of  Divinity. 

Finally,  a  system  must  not  be  supposed  always  to  be  represented 
by  the  character  of  its  expounders  and  defenders,  or  its  effects  be 
judged  of  by  either  their  follies  or  virtues.  A  good  cause  may  have 
the  misfortune  to  have  bad  advocates,  and  most  ruinous  falsehood 
receive,  through  ignorance,  the  support  of  good  and  virtuous  ad- 
herents. The  doctrines  of  Jesus  will  suffer  no  tarnish  by  the  avarice 
and  treachery  of  Iscariot;  though  the  devil,  as  an  angel  of  light, 
should  preach  remission  of  sins  through  the  crucified,  it  would  be 


330  FRUITS    A   TEST    OF    SYSTEMS. 

none  the  less  trutli  from  heaven.  No  doctrine  or  scheme  can  be 
justly  iuiplexecl  with  the  virtues  or  villianies  of  its  supporters,  fur- 
ther than,  by  uniformity  of  the  association,  it  can  be  shown  to  be 
identical  with  and  the  cause  of  the  peculiar  character  of  its  defenders. 
The  rule  is,  that  men  have  a  moral  likeness  to  the  doctrines  they  em- 
brace and  advocate,  espousing  them  because  of  sympathy,  or  trans- 
formed by  them;  but  the  doctrine  must  be  tested  by  a  fair  and  can- 
did view  of  its  legitimate  effects,  as  they  are  seen  invariably  and  by 
natural  sequence  flowing  from  it,  when  it  is  carried  out. 

Bearing  in  our  memories  these  and  similar  precautions,  let  us  now 
proceed  to  apply  our  test  to  a  few  of  the  leading  systems  which  have, 
from  time  immemorial,  put  forth  their  claims  among  men ;  schemes 
which  are  yet  found  lying  out  broadly  upon  the  mind  of  the  world. 

Let  the  examination  hegin  loitli  Atheism. 

Atheism  is  the  scheme  which  denies  God,  and  by  consequence  all 
religious  ideas.  Basing  itself  on  the  assumption  that  there  is  no 
kind  of  being  but  matter,  and  that  all  changes,  which  are  but  varie- 
ties of  shifting  forms,  are  produced  by  inhering  forces  guided  by  no 
intelligence,  it  ignores  all  ideas  of  accountability  except  to  the  self- 
imposed  laws  of  the  majority  or  the  most  powerful;  discards  as  a 
mere  fiction  the  distinction  between  right  and  wrong;  finds  all  good 
to  consist  in  the  gratification  of  the  animal  nature,  since  there  is  no' 
other;  and,  orphaning  the  universe,  abandons  it  to  merciless  and 
meaningless  fate. 

Having  dethroned  God,  and  imbruted  man  in  its  creed,  it  would 
in  its  practice  abolish  forever  all  the  symbols  of  religious  thought 
and  all  the  sanctuaries  of  religious  worship.  In  the  world,  where  it 
should  prevail,  there  would  be  no  temple — no  prayer— no  Sabbath, 
with  its  hallowed  rites — no  morning  song  of  praise — no  evening 
hymn  of  thanksgiving.  In  its  spring-time,  when  flowers  bloom;  and 
its  summer,  when  fruits  mellow;  and  in  its  amber-tinted  autumn, 
when  the  falling  leaves  fill  the  mind  with  saddened  thoughts  of  de- 
parting life;  and  in  the  winter  drear,  when  outwai-d  cold  enkindles 
inward  warmth  of  glowing  sympathy;  over  its  slaving  and  toiling 
and  hopeless  millions,  a  dark  death  pall  would  eternally  brood. 
Death !  how  unmitigated  must  be  its  horrors,  in  such  a  world,  with  no 
lights  kindling  on  the  'further  shore  !  no  gleam  of  hope  to  illume  the 
darkness  of  the  grave !  What  a  sorrowful  world  it  would  be !  Orphan- 
ed, bereaved,  and  uncomforted  !   No  Father  above  !  no  hope  within  ! 


FRUITS   A   TEST    OF    SYSTEMS.  331 

To  my  own  mind  it  suggests  an  awful  midnight,  amid  whose  dark- 
ness, storms  wail,  and  lightnings  bicker,  and  thunders  roll,  and  men 
stand  shivering  with  fright — a  midnigiit,  stretching  on  through  ages, 
without  a  star,  without  a  morning !  In  such  a  world,  every  look 
should  be  a  tear,  every  breath  a  sob ;  a  funereal  sorrow  should  fill 
every  bosom,  and  insupportable  anguish  break  every  heart. 

This  is  the  system.  On  whatever  philosophy  it  reposes,  these  are 
its  dismal  contents.  It  has  been  circulating  in  the  world  for  ages, 
seeking  to  gain  credence  among  men ;  and  is  yety  limitedly  it  is 
true,  but  assiduously,  putting  forth  its  claims  the  earth  over.  It  is 
entrenched  among  us,  and  has  its  juntos  in  all  the  considerable  cen- 
tres of  the  land,  who  are  secretly,  but  industriously  and  fatally,  prop- 
agating its  detestable  dogmas. 

What  are  its  fruits  ?  It  requires  but  little  insight  of  the  springs 
of  human  action  to  perceive  what  they  must  necessarily  be.  "What 
they  are,  is  to  be  seen  in  the  sentiments  and  lives  of  those  who  have 
come  under  its  influence,  and  in  the  state  of  society  where  it  has 
prevailed.  Once  or  twice,  in  the  sad  history  of  the  world,  they  have 
appeared  on  a  gigantic  scale.  Wherever  it  has  obtained,  the  utmost 
demoralization  has  prevailed.  Its  votaries  have  uniformly  become 
the  most  debased  of  mankind.  In  its  polluted  soil  has  grown  up, 
with  rank  luxuriance,  every  abominable  crime.  Fidelity,  chastity, 
domestic  love,  honor,  friendship,  patriotism,  philanthropy,  and  every 
virtue  which  ornaments  our  nature,  blight  and  die  under  its  leprous 
breath.  Lechery  and  prostitution,  and  robbery  and  murder,  spring- 
up  like  poisonous  fungi  amid  its  death-engendering  shades.  Once 
in  the  life  of  man  it  enthroned  itself  in  a  single  nation.  France 
accepted  it  as  her  dismal  creed.  Immediately  the  realm  became  a 
seething  sea  of  blood.  Society  rushed  into  disorganization.  Millions 
perished  in  a  few  months  by  assassination  and  violence.  Men,  mad- 
dened and  intoxicated  by  the  hellish  potation,  rioted  in  carnage. 
Had  the  reign  of  terror  continued  for  twenty  years,  the  nation,  the 
most  enlightened  on  earth,  would  have  been  not  reduced  to  barbar- 
ism merely,  but  absolutely  exterminated,  or  reduced  to  a  miserable 
remnant  of  demonizcd  men,  devouring  and  destroying  each  other. 
What  was  the  result  in  this  atrocious  instance,  would  be  the  result 
universally,  were  the  scheme  accepted  by  mankind.  The  race  could 
not  exist  under  its  dreadful  sway,  or  only  exist  in  fragments,  har- 
rowed and  harrowing  each  other  with  eternal  war.     The  fixmily,  the 


332  FRUITS   A   TEST   OF   SYSTEMS. 

church,  the  state,  arts,  sciences,  commerce,  and  civilization,  would 
alike  be  an  impossibility.  An  organized  government  of  Atheists 
cannot  exist.  All  institutions  and  common  interests  sink  before  it 
as  the  rush  before  the  tempest.  Even  the  sexes,  held  together  by 
the  strongest  natural  bond,  could  subsist  only  in  a  commerce  of  lust; 
and  paternity,  robbed  of  all  the  natural  instincts,  becoming  an  insuf- 
ferable burden,  would  be  associated  with  general  infanticide,  as  was 
the  case  in  the  appalling  instance  referred  to — the  offspring  of  re- 
volting lust  would  but  furnish  the  victims  of  unnatural  murder. 

Such  are  the  fruits  of  Atheism — by  them  let  it  be  tried.  Let  it 
stand  forth  surrounded  with  its  hideous  growth — its  profusion  of 
desolation — its  dethroned  and  decapitated  Grod — its  imbruted  and 
materialized  humanity — its  dismantled  temples  and  altars  and  fanes — 
its  demolished  governments  and  shattered  and  roofless  homes — its 
bleared  and  bloody  and  lecherous  men — its  dishonored,  prostituted, 
and  defiled  women — its  beggared  and  starving  and  abandoned  chil- 
dren ;  let  it  stand  forth  amid  its  abominations  and  horrors  of  sin  and 
shame,  full  to  the  brim  of  all  manner  of  loathsomeness ;  and  let 
men  judge  of  it  by  its  fruits.  "Who  shall  plead  its  cause?  Surely 
the  world  wants  not  Atheism.  There  are  woes  enough  without  it. 
He  is  an  enemy  who  abets  it.  Everything  prized  and  lovely  resents 
it  as  inimical.  0  Atheism !  thou  remorseless  monster,  thou  direst 
child  of  perdition,  who  can  think  of  thee  without  a  shudder  ?  Self- 
condemned,  get  thee  back  to  the  dark  abyss  out  of  which  thou  didst 
emanate  with  cursings  and  blasphemies !    The  world  Wants  thee  not. 

Let  the  test  next  he  applied  to  Deism. 

Deism  is  that  system  of  religous  faith,  or  rather  unfaith,  which 
recognises  God,  but  discards  the  Christian  revelation.  It  makes  a 
great  account  of  natural,  but  wholly  ignores  revealed,  religion.  Its 
Bible  is  nature — its  interpreter,  unaided  human  reason. ,  Its  God  is 
afar  off,  and  inaccessible  to  mortals;  who,  having  created  the  world, 
has  abandoned  it  to  the  operation  of  fixed  laws,  and  no  more  inter- 
meddles with  its  affairs.  To  these  laws  men,  irv  common  with  all 
other  creatures,  are  accountable.  From  their  penalties  there  is  no 
escape.  There  is  no  compassion  or  mercy  in  the  divine  nature. 
Prayer  is  unprofitable,  worship  meaningless  and  vain.  Man  may  be 
immortal  or  not.     The  future  may  be  happy  or  miserable. 

This  is  the  system.  It  is  not  so  dreadful  as  Atheism,  for  it  con- 
tains some  truth;  but  it  is  only  less  frightful.     It  makes  no  provis- 


FRUITS   A   TEST   OF   SYSTEMS.  333 

ion  for  humnn  sin — lias  no  alleviation  for  liuman  soitow.  Amid  the 
darkness  of  time,  it  leaves  man  without  a  guide,  without  a  Saviom-, 
without  a  hope — the  victim  of  doubt  and  guilt  and  despair.  It  tells 
him,  indeed,  that  God  is,  and  that  nature  is,  and  that  sin  is ;  and 
then  abandons  him  with  these  awful  convictions  to  work  out  his 
dubious  destiny.  It  reads  him  beautiful  lessons  from  the  stars  and 
the  earth  and  the  flowers,  but  it  brings  him  no  tidings  of  Jesus  or 
Calvary.  It  philosophizes  of  laws  and  forces,  and  stands  in  awe  be- 
fore the  dread  and  august  tokens  of  eternal  power,  but  it  brings  no 
messages  from  His  throne.  It  gives  the  universe  a  Creator,  but 
leaves  it  without  a  Father.  Like  Atheism,  it  has  no  temple ;  for  its 
God  will  not  hear  prayer ;  no  Saviour,  no  atonement,  no  sabbath,  no 
sacraments,  no  promises ;  no  renewing  Comforter.  Upon  the  great 
problem  of  destiny  it  has  no  light. 

"What  are  its  fruits  ?  What  can  they  be  but  a  harvest  of  despair  ? 
For  sin  it  has  no  cure,  for  sorrow  no  solace,  for  the  yearnings  and 
cravings  of  our  nature  no  relief  It  is  a  boastful  system,  calling 
itself  by  ambitious  names,  and  bearing  itself  loftily  before  men,  and 
the  young  especially  arc  wooed  to  embrace  it,  as  a  substitute  for  the 
abused  and  discarded  Bible.  A  long  list  of  brilliant  minds  are  enu- 
merated among  its  admirers,  and  some  of  the  finest  literature  in  the 
realm  of  poetry  celebrates  its  praise ;  it  fascinates  by  its  boldness, 
and  contempt  of  authority,  and  freedom  from  restraints  aad  the  tur- 
moils of  conscience;  it  is  a  short  method  to  silence  all  troublesome 
ideas  of  duty  and  all  corroding  reproaches ;  it  disposes  in  a  very 
summary  way  of  many  sayings  hard  to  be  received ;  it  says,  eat  and 
drink,  for  to-morrow  you  die.  Honeyed  words — but,  after  all,  what 
are  its  fruits  ?  Are  they  not  dreadful  to  contemplate  ?  This  boast- 
ful system,  is  it  not  a  land  barren  and  bloomless  as  the  shades  of 
death  ?  What  does  it  give  in  the  place  of  what  it  takes  from  us  ? 
It  robs  us  of  our  Father  in  Heaven,  of  our  Saviour,  of  our  Sanctifier, 
of  our  Bible,  of  our  sabbath,  of  our  altars,  of  hope  concerning  our 
dead.  It  gives  us,  in  the  place,  a  cold,  distant,  unsympathizing 
God,  a  dreary  world,  a  dark  grave,  a  hopeless  future — nothing  to  live 
for  but  sin,  nothing  to  look  to  but  annihilation.  It  smothers  every 
generous  sentiment,  stifles  every  noble  aspiration,  and  spreads  the 
blight  of  death  over  every  divine  and  heavenly  sympathy  of  our 
nature.  Less  appalling  than  sheer  Atheism,  it  is  but  another  ward 
in  the  same  great  pest-house ;  less  loathsome,  it  is  scarcely  less  deadly. 


334  FRUITS   A  TEST   OF  SYSTEMS. 

Let  its  friends  point  out  a  single  beneficent  influence  it  exerts,  a  sol- 
itary good  it  has  ever  done  !  Where  are  its  trophies  ?  Whom  has 
it  made  better  ?  What  family  has  it  redeemed  ?  Show  us  the  nation 
or  people  who  have  been  blessed  by  its  sway !  There  are  no  such 
trophies.     Its  fruits  are  fruits  of  death.     The  world  wants  it  not. 

Let  tlie  test  he  ajipUcd  to  Pantheism. 

Pantheism  is  the  scheme  which  resolves  all  things  into  God.  God 
is  the  universe,  and  the  universe  is  God.  God  is  the  substance  alike 
of  matter  and  of  spirit ;  and  all  phenomena  are  but  the  unfolding  of 
Himself,  and  in  no  way  distinct  from  Himself  Observe,  the  theory 
is,  not  that  things  exist  in  God,  by  means  of  His  power,  as  exponents 
of  His  thought,  but  that  they  are  nothing  different  from  Himself. 
There  never  has  been,  and  never  can  be,  anything  other  than  God. 
Extension  is  extension  of  God;  all  forms  in  objectivity  are  forms  of 
God ;  all  material  qualities  are  qualities  of  God ;  the  substance  of 
which  these  qualities  and  modes  are  predicated  is  the  substance  of 
God;  all  thought  is  God  thinking;  all  consciousness  is  God  conscious; 
I  am  God,  body  and  soul,  and  nothing  but  God ;  the  same  is  true  of 
all  other  men  and  things ;  we  are  all  God,  and  God  is  all  of  us ;  we  are 
not  many,  but  one ;  as  the  waves  are  not  different  from  the  ocean,  but 
only, perishing  and  fleeting  forms  thereof,  so  we — all  things,  objective 
and  subjective — are  but  modes  of  the  Infinite.  It  will  be  found  that,  in 
the  last  analysis,  this  scheme,  though  the  most  extreme  opposite  of 
Atheism,  that  wholly  ignoring  God,  this  wholly  ignoring  any  being 
other  than  God,  is  essentially  the  same.  Its  god  is  impersonal  nature. 
It  denies  creation,  since  there  is  nothing  existing,  and  never  can  be, 
but  God ;  it  denies  all  moral  distinctions,  since  there  is  but  one  in- 
disceptible  actor;  it  converts  the  me  and  the  not  me  into  a  delusion, 
since  there  is  no  not  me  in  being,  and  no  me  as  distinct  from  the 
whole.  Allow  it  to  be  true,  and  consciousness  is  a  cheat;  moral  dis- 
tinctions fictions,  all  ideas  and  experiences  and  hopes  and  fears  vaga- 
ries and  dreams,  resting  upon  no  reality;  God  is  the  sum  of  all  in- 
consistencies and  contradictions  —  a  kaleidoscoi^e,  whose  shifting 
.  combinations  mean  nothing — an  ever-becoming  unintelligible  mas- 
querade of  fleeting  forms  and  vanishing  thoughts. 

Its  effects  must  be  essentially  the  same  as  those  -of  the  systems 
already  noticed.  It  has  no  hope.  Its  gairish  rarefied  atmosphere 
supports  only  shadows.  For  the  guilt  and  sorrows  and  aspirations 
of  the  human  soul  it  has  nothing,  except  the  dreary  thought  that 


FRUITS   A   TEST    OF    SYSTEMS.  335 

these  are  mere  delusions,  the  shadows  of  a  shade,  since  there  are  no 
human  souls.  The  system  prostitutes  God  and  abnegates  man,  and 
sweeps  away  the  possibility  of  both  virtue  and  happiness  from  the 
universe,  since  it  abolishes  the  conditions  of  both.  It  may  amuse 
the  intellect  as  a  speculation,  but  it  can  never  find  place  in  the  heart 
as  a  creed  until  the  heart  itself  has  become  the  sepulchre  of  blasted 
loves  and  perished  hopes. 

Appli/  the  jjrinciple  to  the  various  si/stems  of  idolatry  and  heathen- 
ism. 

The  most  absurd  and  meaningless  of  all  the  idolatries  is  better  than 
no  religion.  Utterly  false  and  bad  as  it  is,  it  comes  nearer  the  truth 
than  the  universal  negation.  Some  of  the  systems  of  mythology 
have  possessed  much  truth,  but  as  scattered  rays  amid  immensity  of 
darkness.  Their  worship  has  been  the  absurd  worship  of  things 
that  are  not  God. 

The  fruits  of  one  system  are  the  fruits  of  all.  What  it  is  at  one 
time  and  in  one  place,  it  is  for  all  time  and  the  earth  over.  Its  re- 
volting portrait  is  fully  drawn  in  Romans,  second  chapter.  Such 
was  heathenism  two  thousand  years  ago,  within  the  limits  of  the 
proudest  and  greatest  empire  the  world  ever  beheld ;  such  it  is  to- 
day, wherever  it  is  found.  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 
The  world  wants  not  heathenism !  Its  fruits  are  all  bitter,  even  in 
the  mouth;  in  the  belly,  they  are  wormwood — hemlock.^  From  its 
proud  temple  resounding  with  the  worship  of  the  Olympian  god,  to 
its  miserable  fetich  and  loathsome  greegree,  it  is  full  of  abomination. 
It  has  nothing  for  mankind  but  death.  Look  and  see  !  Is  it  not  so  ? 
Look  at  India,  with  its  blood-impurpled  Ganges,  and  the  senseless 
tortures  of  Brahminical  worship ;  look  at  China,  with  its  million  pa- 
godas, and  its  cheerless  and  stupid  ancestralism ;  look  at  central  and 
further  Asia,  with  its  mosques  and  pseudo-revelations;  look  at  Af- 
rica, with  its  besotted  fetichism,  and  obscene  and  devilish  orgies ; 
look  everywhere  over  the  wide  regions  of  heathenism,  and  one  sight 
greets  the  vision  at  every  turning — one  wide,  dreary,  dreadful  deso- 
lation; a  scene  of  barbarian  stupidity,  and  foul  and  disgusting  de- 
pravity, at  which  the  heart  sickens,  and  every  sensibility  revolts. 
Death,  death,  death,  everywhere.  Cheerless,  hopeless,  rayless  night. 
Such  is  heathenism.    The  world  wants  it  not.    Its  fruits  condemn  it. 

Let  the  Bible  he  noio  ti'ied  hy  this  test :  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall 
know  them." 


336  FRUITS   A   TEST   OF   SYSTEMS. 

The  Bible  comes  to  the  Tvorld  as  a  divine  system — a  revelation 
from  the  great  j^aternal  Spirit  of  the  Universe.  It  prescribes  duty, 
and  assumes  the  direction  and  guidance  both  of  the  faith  and  prac- 
tice of  mankind.  It  demands  that  all  men  should  abandon  every 
other  authority,  and  implicitly  embrace  and  obey  it.  To  reject  or 
neglect  it  is  the  highest  guilt,  while  to  receive  and  honor  it  is  the 
sure  passport  to  the  favor  of  Grod  and  supreme  felicities  of  heaven. 

What  are  the  fruits  of  this  scheme  ?  How  does  it  answer  its  high 
professions  ?     Look  over  the  world,  and  behold  t     - 

Let  any  one  take  a  map  of  the  world,  and,  carefully  drawing  a  line 
around  those  portions  where  the  Bible  and  Christianity  prevail,  in- 
stitute a  comparison  between  such  portions  and  those  under  the  sway 
of  other  systems,  and  what  will  he  discover?  A  contrast  the  most 
striking,  in  every  point  of  view,  as  of  midnight  and  mid-day.  And 
why  this  ?  It  is  not  to  be  explained  upon  any  natural  difference  of 
soil,  or  climate,  or  mineral  resources,  or  population.  Britain  is  the 
same  island,  and  its  people  the  same  people,  they  were  two  thousand 
years  ago.  The  valleys  of  the  Indus  or  Niger  are  not  inferior  to-day 
to  those  of  the  Thames  or  Mississippi.  The  territories  embraced  by 
the  North  American  Stateg  arc  precisely  what  they  were  only  three 
hundred  years  ago,  when  pagan  tribes  held  undisputed  sway.  The 
contrast  is  to  be  found  in  the  tendencies  of  systems. 

Again,  let  a  contrast  be  instituted  between  Christian  nations,  and 
what  do  we  find  ?  That  just  in  proportion  as  they  are  Christian,  they 
rise  in  the  scale  of  excellence;  just  in  the  ratio  in  which  the  Bible 
is  made  known,  and  its  precepts  practiced,  the  nation  rises  up  in  all 
the  elements  of  worth  and  prosperity.  Why  is  Scotland  superior  to 
Ireland  ?  The  former  is  a  vast  stone-henge,  the  latter  the  most  fer- 
tile island  on  the  globe — the  emerald  gem  of  the  sea !  Nature  has 
done  all  for  the  latter,  nothing  for  the  former !  Yet,  while  Ireland 
is  cursed  with  almost  pagan  night,  every  rocky  crag  of  Scotland 
blazes  with  meridian  day !  Why  ?  Scotland  has  an  open  Bible, 
read  in  her  families  and  taught  her  children,  and^Scotland  has  faith 
and  a  Sabbath ;  Ireland  has  the  confessional  and  priestly  absolutions  ! 
Take  Italy  and  Switzerland ;  take  England  and  Spain ;  take  the 
United  States  of  North  America  and  the  States  of  South  America; 
the  same  contrasts,  and  for  the  same  causes,  are  seen  in  every  case. 
Throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  Christendom,  one  can  tell,  by 
the  very  aspect  of  the  country — the  thrift,  and  industry,  and  intcl- 


FRUITS   A   TEST    OF    SYSTEMS.  337 

liircncc,  ami  morality,  and  happiness,  and  social  elevation,  of  the  peo- 
ple— where  there  is  a  Bible  received  and  I'evered,  and  where  there 
is  not!  Its  fruits  are  as  obvious  as  the  mountain  ranj^es  and  great 
rivers.  What  docs  it  mean  ?  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 
The  Bible  makes  the  difference  I  Where  it  goes,  and  is  read  and 
believed,  the  rock  turns  into  gold,  and  the  wilderness  blossoms  and 
blooms  like  a  garden.  Flowers  spring  up  in  its  path,  and  the  conti- 
nents and  islands  become  radiant  beneath  its  beams  !  It  takes  Druid 
Britain,  and  transforms  it  into  Christian  England — pagan  America, 
and  ■  makes  Christian  Massachusetts,  and  her  constellation  of  sister 
Christian  States !  Any  land,  and  elevates  it  into  honor  and  glory, 
and  makes  it  great  and  distinguished  in  the  earth,  though  it  be  a 
barren  heath,  or  a  cold  and  rocky  desert. 

Let  it  be  viewed  in  its  influence  upon  individuals,  and  let  the  con- 
trast be  between  those  in  the  same  place  and  condition  who  accept 
and  those  who  reject  it;  and  here  the  contrast  will  be  no  less  stri- 
king than  in  the  former  case.  It  will  be  found  that,  in  proportion 
as  the  individual  man  or  family  or  state  comes  under  the  influence 
of  the  Bible,  he  and  they  are  elevated  and  ennobled;  it  carries  into 
the  individual  heart  and  family  and  neighborhood  the  seeds  of 
a  new  life — a  power  which  makes  all  things  new  !  Every  man  knows 
this.  Commencing  with  the  best  forms  of  humanity,  the  purest  and 
noblest  portions  of  thd  race,  you  find  that  they  are  those  who  are 
most  imbued  with  the  Bible  !  Going  downward,  you  observe,  just 
as  you  sink  in  the  scale  of  excellence,  that  you  are  finding  less  and 
less  of  the  Bible,  until,  in  the  abysses  of  depravity  and  shame,  you 
are  among  those  who  discard  it  entirely  !  Or,  beginning  at  the  low- 
est extreme,  it  is  seen  that,  just  as  you  ascend,  you  come  into  the 
atmosphere  of  that  holy  and  divine  book  ! 

You  find,  again,  that  when  the  elevated  and  good  gradually  let  go 
the  Bible,  and  just  in  the  ratio  in  which  they  do  so,  they  infallibly 
sink  down,  and  lose  their  pre-eminence ;  and  again,  when  the  Bible 
is  introduced  amid  the  lowest  and  basest  conditions,  just  in  the  de- 
gree in  which  they  embrace  it,  it  lifts  them  up,  until,  from  the  deep- 
est abysses  of  degradation,  they  pass  up  to  the  very  summits  of  pre- 
eminence. These  are  facts  well  known — witnessed  bj'^all.  And  why 
is  it?  There  can  be  no  difficulty  in  answering  the  question.  The 
case  is  plain.  The  Bible  contains  truths  which  elevate  and  improve 
mankind.  These  results  flow  from  it,  as  the  stream  from  the  fouu- 
22 


338  FRUITS   A  TEST   OF   SYSTEMS. 

tain.  What  it  does  for  one,  it  would  do  for  all.  What  it  does  for 
one  nation,  it  would  do,  it  will  yet  do,  for  all  nations.  Let  its  prin- 
ciples but  prevail  universally,  let  it  be  received  fully  into  all  hearts, 
let  its  life-giving  currents  flow  through  all  families,  let  it  gain  a 
place  in  all  countries,  and  such  will  be  its  fruit  universally;  it  will 
make  a  new  world,  as  it  makes  new  men  tind  new  nations.  Does  any 
man  doubt  it  ?  Has  not  the  fact  become  established  in  every  con- 
viction ? 

Let  the  test  be  applied  :  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 
Bring  forth  the  blessed  book ;  behold  what  it  hath  wrought !  Let 
its  divine  fruits  cluster  upon  it  —  its  hallowed  influences,  its  re- 
splendent trophies,  all  that  it  hath  done  for  the  world !  And  what 
is  the  judgment?  Do  not  all  men  rise  up  to  hail  it?  Is  there  one 
in  all  the  world  so  blind,  so  lost,  so  devilish,  that  will  not  in  his 
lieart  exclaim.  Hail,  thou  blessed  of  the  Lord — thou  harbinger  of 
good  to  man ! 

Without  remaining  longer  on  this  part  of  the  subject,  we  shall 
proceed,  in  conclusion,  to  some  reflections  which  grow  out  of 
the  preceding  line  of  discussion. 

1.  A  system  so  replete  with  blessings  to  mankind  deserves  to  be 
cherished  by  all  men.    Nay,  more:  it  becomes  a  most  sacred  duty. to 
'humanity  to  love  and  promote  it;  and  he  must  be  accounted  inimical' 
to  his  species  who  hinders  or  impedes  it. 

Aside  from  considerations  of  duty  to  God  as  the  author  of  revela- 
tion, and  aside  from  the  personal  interest  we  all  have  involved,  there 
arises  an  obligation  to  humanity,  to  the  world,  of  a  most  urgent  and 
commanding  character,  which,  without  most  inhuman  and  cruel 
recreancy,  we  cannot  refuse. .  The  highest  interests  of  our  children, 
and  kinsmen,  and  race,  for  all  generations,  is  concerned.  The  Bible 
is  their  only  hope.  Every  other  scheme  fails  them.  Deprive  them 
of  this,  and  the  race  is  doomed.  There  can  be  no  mistake  about  this. 
The  experiment  of  ages  proves  it.  All  history  is  full  of  the  demon- 
stration. Strike  it  down,  and  man's  last  refuge  is' swept  away.  An 
■awful  midnight  of  guilt,  and  despair,  and  ruin,  must  ensue.  Strike 
it  down,  and  the  sky  is  swept  of  every  star,  and  the  earth  of  every 
blossom!  There  remains  nothing,  nothing 'but  death — no  hiding 
but  the  grave !  Palsied  be  the  hand  that  would  inflict  so  dire  a 
calamity — palsied  the  arm  that  interposes  not  to  prevent  it.  The 
hand  lifted  against  the  Bible  is  lifted  against  humanity — against  me, 


FRUITS   A   TEST   OF   SYSTEMS.  339 

against  yoa,  agaiast  our  cliildrea !  The  wrong  it  would  inflict  is  a 
million-fold  worse  than  murder !  It  is  the  moral  and  social  murder 
of  mankind.  We  hold  it  as  a  sacred  trust  for  the  ages.  Anything 
else  we  have  to  transmit  to  them  is  husks  and  vanity !  The  Bible  is 
their  life  !  Faithless  ?  A  thousand  hells  were  a  penalty  too  small 
for  treason  such  as  this !  No  !  no  !  I  no !  I !  We  cannot  be  indifferent 
spectators  when  such  an  issue  is  made. 

It  follows  from  the  discussion,  that  the  abettors  of  infidel  theories 
and  perverted  forms  of  Christianity  must  be  condemned,  as  inflicting 
the  grossest  wrong  upon  society.  Their  attitude  is  not  one  of  indif- 
ference or  innocence.  It  matters  nothing  what  may  be  their  social 
position;  it  matters  nothing  what  may  be  their  professed  aim.  They 
may  regard  themselves  as  only  exercising  their  natural  rights  in  prop- 
agating their  dreadful  dogmas,  and  they  may  consider  .that  no  immi- 
nent evil  is  implied.  The  fact  is,  they  have  commenced  a  most 
deadly  war  against  the  best  interests  of  mankind;  and  every  man 
owes  to  himself,  and  to  his  assailed  brotherhood,  and  to  God,  to 
assume  explicit  ground,  and  stand  forth  in  the  breach  as  the  friend 
and  defender  of  his  own  and  his  species'  interests ! 

We  must  take  the  Bible  closer  than  ever  to  our  hearts;  wo  must 
no  longer  view  it  as  simply  an  interesting  antiquity — a  monument  of 
the  genius  and  learning  of  former  times — a  powerful  and  wonderful 
book,  which  has  done  good  service  in  its  time,  but  in  whose  fate  we 
have  no  vital  concern ;  we  must  no  longer  regard  it  as  merely  the 
property  of  Christians,  from  which  they  arc  to  derive  strange  but 
unimportant  doctrines,  and  by  which  their  organisms  are  to  be  pre- 
served. If  history  teaches  us  anything,  it  teaches  us  that  all  hap- 
piness and  progress  for  the  race  centres  here;  that  therefore  it  is  a 
common  cause,  and  the  most  urgent  and  momentous  in  the  universe ! 

2.  It  results,  from  the  tenor  of  discourse,  that  the  most  earnest 
eS"orts  should  continue  to  be  made  to  give  the  Bible  to  the  nations 
that  have  it  not. 

3.  It  is  obvious  that,  as  there  is  hope  nowhere  else  for  the  race, 
there  is  hope  in  the  Bible ;  it  is  the  pledge  and  promise  of  a  better 
future.  What  it  has  done,  it  can  do,  it  will  do.  It  will  yet  make 
all  heathendom  to  bloom.  Infidelity  cannot  triumph  against  it.  The 
Bible  belongs  to  God,  and  He  will  take  care  of  it. 

4.  It  follows  that  the  friends  of  the  Vnhh  are  the  truest  and  best 
friends  of  humanity,  and  are  engaged  in  the  noblest  cause  in  the 


340  FRUITS    A   TEST    OF    SYSTEMS. 

universe  !  While  tliey  dig  for  the  ore  which  makes  themselves  rich, 
they  are  enriching  their  children  and  all  posterity. 

Finally :  Would  we  become  good,  and  would  we  have  our  families 
become  good ;  would  we  be  lifted  up  to  the  very  summits  of  excel- 
lence and  prosperity,  our  way  is  through  the  Bible.  It  furnishes  us 
the  infallible  helps.  It  is  not  enough  that  it  is  in  the  world — that 
we  have  it  in  our  houses — that  we  hug  it  to  our  hearts,  as  a  most 
precious  treasure — that  we  account  him  an  enemy  to  ourselves  who 
is  an  enemy  to  it — that  we  print  it  by  millions,  and  give  it  to  the 
nations  !  It  is  not  enough  that  it  is  preached  from  our  pulpits,  in- 
corporated in  our  literature,  and  enthroned  in  our  government.  We 
must  read  and  believe  and  practice  it.  We  must  eat  it  as  our  daily 
bread,  and  derive  our  life  from  it.  It  must  enter  into  our  souls,  and 
become,  in  soiue  sort,  a  part  of  ourselves;  its  ideas,  and  principles, 
and  hopes,  and  aims,  must  become  our  own ;  it  must  rule  our  rulers 
and  permeate  our  commerce ;  it  must  enter  our  families,  and  markets, 
and  schools,  and  courts;  it  must  reproduce  itself  in  us;  we  must 
become  living  Bibles;  our  minds  must  think  by  it,  and  our  hearts 
beat  by  it,  and  our  acts  square  by  it;  we  must  be  true  to  it,  and 
teach  our  children  to  be  true  to  it;  we  must  make  it  our  guide  for 
time,  and  our  light  for  eternity;  we  must  build  on  it,  and  hide  init; 
.  it  must  be  our  first,  and  last,  and  only  law ! 

Let  us  do  this,  brothers,  and  it  will  be  our  palladium,  our  high 
tower,  our  salvation  !  It  will  keep  us  from  evil  amid  the  temptations 
of  time;  it  will  furnish  us  for  eternity;  and  amid  the  swellings  of 
Jordan,  and  in  the  bitterness  of  the  last  conflict,  it  will  sustain  and 
comfort  us,  and  bear  us  in  triumph  and  glory  to  the  heaven  of  its 
promise  : 

Which  may  God  grant,  for  His  name  sake     Amen. 


Hfiiitevun^; 


P  A  S  T  <■' 


THE  MERELi    >iuiuii.  3i.UY. 
BY   REV.    ./  !5DRR0  • 

igainst  Sle. — Matthew,  xii,  -u. 
m  most  commodities,  some  persons  who*  clain 


ness  of  men,  and  to  rn 
lence.    They : 
thithpi    -v.wl  . 
kin  i 


:il  ro.fincrt^r.nt,  pnrifr. 


re  oui 
ers  or 
■  as  an 

1. 

i)- 

iiimilies 
i;-.     lacv  Boem 
■lurcl), 
witt  in 


itable;  reudv  with  their  contribu- 
aullcrijig,  t.)  benefit  mankind,  and  to  aid  the  eu. 

^  .'irch.      H;-.riM,.iT ',,  1.1-.-.  ■,.  err,,*; !  .  :..  ,1,. ....  . 

ter  and  couduct  may  sr 

But  they  aro  not,  pnia^.^U^,  at  heart,  Chribtiaus.  Their  souls 
have  never  been  inspired  by  the  love  of  Christ.  If-to  be  ^'with 
Jesus  "  imply  union  by  faith  to  Him,  spiritual  affinity  with  Him, 

■       'ove  for  Him,  siueere  d    '  ^    o  be  in  life 

!Vt  (^onforniod  to  His  c--_. ,  .,,,,  .,,.   .,,, 


that  is  U' 


,"  ackuowl- 
th;it  tli-y 

. :  IV-  .'1  ill  c ;:  iiivij  bj  ittcji  pertoii::.     •'  il  • 
.1  Mk."  ' 


'^^k 


101 


PisT.i  .1   ■ 

TlereiR,iiMi 

friends  to  O'^'^'" 
pncticilirj  . 
Mmndtkitfi 
dmiktti  admn 
mdm:.ai\ipm 
bee.  IltjndAik 
tlitk  ^' ■ -^ 

11 


7>-  t^^c/^-d" 


\ 


Cl  (J 


terfiri; . 
terst,' 
h- 
tave: 
Jea- ' 

sipreut  Ivi; ; 
aniinW..- 
"witl  i; 

siigeiluti.. 
yetmaji^ 

Aati, 


THE   MERELY   MORAL    MAN.  343 

that  answers  to  his  own  wishes,  and  he  may  adopt  the  counsel  wliile 
he  curses  the  counsellor.  If  he  obey  only  those  laws  that  please 
himself,  he  obeys  only  himself  Ninety  and  nine  of  the  laws  of  the 
land,  one  may  faithfully  observe,  because  they  suit  his  interests,  or 
because  he  has  no  strong  motive  to  violate  them;  yet  a  wilful  and 
perverse  breach  of  the  hundredth,  stamps  him  a  criminal. 

So  is  it,  in  relation  to  the  law  of  God.  He  whose  actions  are 
prompted  by  a  supreme  regard  to  Jehovah's  authority  will  willingly 
disobey  in  no  point,  because  that  authority,  and  not  his  own  will,  is 
law  to  him.  He  who  wilfully  and  perseveringly  violates  but  one 
law,  cannot  be  governed  by  the  principle  of  obedience  in  conform- 
ing to  any.  Hence,  God  has  said:  "Whosoever  shall  keep  the 
whole  law,  and  yet  offend  in  one  point,  is  guilty  of  all,"  (or  wholly 
guilty.)  That  is,  he  who  is  not  obedient  from  principle,  is  not  obe- 
dient at  all. 

Are  you  honest,  hrcausc  God  commands  honesty  ?  Then  you  will 
pray  daily  and  fervently,  because  that  too  is  God's  commandment. 
If  the  reason  for  the  duty  is  in  the  authority  of  the  Lawgiver,  and 
not  in  your  own  choice  or  desire,  then  you  cannot  indulge  in  prefer- 
ences or  make  exceptions  among  His  laws. 

The  regenerate  child  of  God  may  indeed  be  betrayed  or  tempted 
into  sin,  but  he  cannot  love  it  nor  continue  in  it.  The  supreme  de- 
sire of  his  heart  is,  to  be  entirely  controlled  by  the  will  of  the  Lord. 

Themerely  moral  man,  then,  is  not  controlled  simply  by  a  regard 
to  God's  authority,  because  he  habitually  lives  in  known  disobedience 
to  all  His  spiritual  requirements.  The  Lord  commands  him  to  pray, 
and  he  does  not  pray — to  repent  of  sin,  and  he  does  not  repent— to 
confide  his  soul  in  faith  to  the  keeping  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  con- 
trol of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  he  does  it  not.  The  Lord  commands 
him  to  love  his  enemies,  and  he  does  not  love  nor  strive  to  love  them. 
He  does  not  even  aim  to  fulfil  those  personal  spiritual  duties  that 
involve  the  daily  communion  of  the  soul  with  God. 

And  yet  these  are  all  commandments  of  Jehovah,  as  important,  and 
based  upon  the  same  authority,  as  those  which  are  designed  to  gov- 
ern his  more  obvious  relations  to  his  fellow  men. 

Whatever  right  actions,  then,  he  may  perform,  whatever  good 
emotions  or  dispositions  he  may  exhibit,  they  are  not  rendered  he- 
cause  God  requires  them.  There  is  some  other  reason  than  the 
authority  of  the  Lord  for  their  cultivation. 


344  THE   MERELY   MORAL   MAN. 

Suppose,  for  the  sake  of  illustration,  that  from  such  a  man  as  we 
are  describing,  charity  is  solicited  by  a  hungry  child ;  he  promptly 
gives  alms  for  its  relief.  This  is  a  good  deed,  and  he  would  have 
been  blamable  to  have  refused.  Now,  what  are  the  real  motives  that 
prompt  this  beneficence.  Perhaps  his  heart  is  oppressed  by  the 
thought  of  the  want  and  wretchedness  of  that  sufferer,  and  to  relieve 
himself,  he  gives.  Perhaps  he  desires  to  impress  upon  the  mind 
of  that  beggar  child — or  through  it,  upon  some  other  minds — a  sense 
of  his  own  generosity.  Some  desire  there  may  be,-too,  to  relieve 
the  suffering.  He  feels  that  there  is  a  kind  of  obligation  resting  on 
the  prosperous,  to  aid  the  needy. 

Now,  do  we  not  give  to  that  action  all  the  credit  it  deserves  ? 
But  is  there  any  reference  to  God  in  it  ?  Does  the  thought  that  it 
is  done  in  obedience  to  a  commandment  of  the  Lord  once  occur  to 
his  mind  ?  If  not,  then  the  motives  that  prompt  and  the  emotions 
that  accompany  such  charity  terminate  mainly  upon  self 

You  have  perhaps  given  liberal  contributions  to  some  benevolent 
purposes.  This  was,  in  itself,  praiseworthy.  But  what  was  the  na- 
ture of  your  reflections  previous  or  subsequent  to  such  gifts  ?  Was 
thei-e  any  thought  of  Christ's  .requirements  in  connection  with  them? 
"Was  there  not  a  fear  that  you  might  be  considered  mean  or  avaricious 
if  you  refused,  or  a  desire  to  be  regarded  as  generous  or  liberal  by 
your  compliance  with  the  request  ?  Might  not  one  have  manifested 
a  similar  liberality,  from  precisely  similar  motives,  who  doubted  or 
denied  the  existence  of  a  God  ? 

You  do  not  mingle,  with  the  openly  vicious,  in  scenes  of  debauch- 
ery, riot,  and  crime.  Why  do  you  abstain  ?  Is  it  from  a  regard  to  God's 
law  ?  Or  is  it  from  a  dread  of  disgrace,  or  a  desire  to  maintain  a 
good  reputation  ?  Or  is  it  because  a  higher  social  refinement  has 
created  a  distaste  for  such  scenes  and  associations?  Does  ai^y  thought 
of  God's  disapproval  interpose  to  check  you  ? 

Do  you  not  more  frequently  ask  what  is  reputable  than  what  is 
right  ?  Do  you  not  strive  rather  to  conceal  than^to  conquer  your 
faults  ? 

Thus,  when  we  scrutinize  rigidly  the  deeds  and  developments  of  a 
mere  worldly  morality — of  which  so  much  boast  is  made — we  find 
that  they  do  not  originate  in  any  desire  to  please  God,  or  to  render 
obedience  to  His  law,  hecaxise  it  is  His  laiv. 

If  we  could  strip  away  all  the  motives  to  morality  by  which  unre- 


THE    MERELY   MORAL   MAN.  345 

newed  men  are  goverucd — the  desire  of  praise,  the  fear  of  reproach, 
the  dread  of  siugulurity,  the  eifort  to  gain  or  preserve  a  reputation, 
the  iuflucnce  of  custom  and  fashion,  the  workings  of  natural  sympa- 
thy— there  woukl  be  no  inducement  left  to  many,  to  manifest  any 
benevolent  emotion,  or  perform  any  charitable  deed.  They  would 
live  and  act  about  as  they  do,  were  it  possible,  if  they  were  con- 
vinced that  no  God  existed,  or  claimed  obedience  from  them. 

Thus  we  percieve  that  many  actions  and  emotions,  right  in  them- 
selves, may  be  exhibited  without  any  regard  whatever  to  God's  au- 
thority or  even  existence. 

The  character  of  the  merely  moral  man  may,  then,  be  thus  deline- 
ated. He  performs  many  useful  and  praiseworthy  actions,  but  none 
from  a  principle  of  obedience  to  God.  He  is  rigidly  honest  in  his 
dealings  with  his  fellow  men,  but  is  dishonest  toward  God.  He 
would  not  defraud  man  of  a  farthing,  but  he  robs  God  of  those  af- 
fections to  which  He  has  the  highest  and  teuderest  claim.  He  dreads 
the  censure  and  courts  the  approbation  of  the  world,  more  solicit- 
ously than  he  fears  the  displeasure  or  seeks  the  favor  of  God.  All 
his  thoughts  and  affections  terminate  upon  earthly  objects,  just  as  if 
piety  had  no  claims,  and  God  demanded  no  obedience.  The  graphic 
metaphor  of  Jesus  is  fairly  descriptive  of  this  class  of  persons.  In 
the  eyes  of  men,  they  are  as  "  whited  sepulchres,"  which  indeed  ap- 
pear beautiful  outwardly,  but  to  the  eye  of  God,  which  scrutinizes 
the  heart,  they  are  "  full  of  dead  men's  bones  and  all  uncleanncss." 

We  proceed  to  notice — 

II.  The  nature  of  the  influence  exerted  by  the  merely 

MORAL   MAN. 

His  reputation  and  respectability  in  society  give  him  an  influence 
that  cannot  be  secured  by  the  openly  vicious.  His  deportment  and 
habits  command  respect,  and  l)y  children,  kindred,  and  friends,  he  is 
regarded,  it  may  be,  as  a  pattern  for  imitation.  In  proportion  to  his 
honesty,  sobriety,  good  judgment,  and  experience,  is  his  influence 
extended. 

Look,  then,  upon  this  sage,  pure  moralist,  surrounded  by  a  circle 
of  trusting  and  affectionate  hearts,  upon  all  which,  as  their  lucid 
centre,  he  radiates  the  light  of  his  example  and  teaching,  and  say, 
will  that  light  guide  them  to  Calvary  and  to  Zion  '{  Is  it  not  rather 
like  that  of  a  flickering  taper,  gloomily  illumining  the  vestibule  to 
"  utter  darkness  ?  "     Though  that  influence  may  temporarily  restrain 


346  THE    MERELY   MORAL   MAN. 

and  regulate  the  worldly  conduct — though  it  may  tend  to  train  worthy 
and  amiable  members  of  society  for  the  present  life — yet  is  it  at  all 
adapted  to  teach  the  depravity  and  guilt  of  our  fallen  nature;  the  es- 
sential necessity  of  regeneration  and  of  a  Mediator  and  Saviour;  or  any 
of  those  momentous  truths  upon  which  the  salvation  of  the  soul  depends  ? 
One  lesson  conveyed  by  the  entire  influence  of  the  merely  moral 
man  is,  that  the  restraints  of  piety  are  unnecessary.  When  the 
question  is  anxiously  asked,  "  Wherewithal  shall  a  young  man 
cleanse  his  way?"  the  Bible  replies,  "By  taking  heed  thereto  ac- 
cording to  Thy  word."  There  is  no  need  for  that,  is  the"  response, 
not  perhaps  of  the  lips,  but  emphatically  of  the  life,  of  the  irreligious 
moralist.  His  influence  and  example  say,  "  I  take  no  heed  to  the 
Word  of  God;  I  am  not  restrained  by  its  precepts,  nor  controlled  by 
its  spirit;  yet  my  way  is  clean  in  the  esteem  of  the  world.  You  may, 
my  child,  my  neighbor,  be  like  me,  respected  and  beloved,  amiable 
and  benevolent,  without  heeding  the  restraints  of  piety."  Is'not  a 
life  like  this  "  against  Christ  ?  " 

The  carnal  heart,  hostile  to  holiness,  greedily  imbibes  such  teach- 
ings, and  children  and  kindred  are  lured,  by  the  deceitful  sophisms 
of  such  a  life,  along  the  broad  road  to  perdition. 

Ye  worldly-minded  fathers !  will  ye  thus  draw,  as  in  the  net  of 
an  irreligious  influence,  your  own  sons  away  from  the  narrow  path  to 
life  everlasting,  and  encourage  them  in  fatal  "neglect  of  the  great 
salvation  ?  " 

Another  lesson  instilled  by  the  influence  of  the  worldly  moralist 
is,  that  there  may  be  true  enjoyment,  a  satisfied  heart,  without  obe- 
dience to  God. 

The  Word"  of  God  dcclai'cs,  "There  is  no  peace  to  the  wicked;" 
"Wretchedness  and  misery  arc  in  their  paths,  and  the  way  of  peace 
they  have  not  known." 

The  thoughtless  daughter  may  cry,  when  such  assertions  are  made, 
"Does  my  dear  mother  experience  no  peace  nor  happiness?  She  is 
not  religious,  yet  surely  she  enjoys  much.  There  -must,  therefore,  be 
.peace  and  felicity  without  piety." 

Alas  !  short-sighted  maiden ;  you  know  not  that  mother's  painful 
anxieties — perhaps  remorse — in  her  hours  of-solitude  and  reflection; 
nor  do  you  know  the  infinite  superiority  of  those  "joys  unspeakable," 
which  true  piety  procures,  and  in  comparison  of  which,  the  peace 
which  "  the  world  giveth  "  is  "  no  peace." 


THE   MERELY   MORAL   MAN.  347 

Cau  you  uot  see  that  that  daughter  is  led,  by  the  cords  of  a  god- 
less yet  moral  mother's  influence,  away  from  the  "  straight  gate  " 
that  opens  towards  heaven,  and  into  the  ''broad  road"  that  termi- 
nates in  the  "  burning  lake  ?  " 

Ye  worldly  mothers !  will  ye  continue  to  exert  that  strong,  sweet 
influence,  which  filial  love  so  confidingly  owns,  in  teaching  your 
children  that  piety  is  needless  for  them,  and  that  they  may  be  happy 
enough  and  safe  enough  without  regard  to  the  comforts  and  sanc- 
tions of  religion  ? 

The  influence  of  the  mere  worldly  moralist,  draws  the  soul  away 
from  dependence  upon  the  atonement  and  niediation  of  Jesus  Christ. 
In  the  Cross,  centre  all  the  sinner's  rational  hopes  for  heaven.  There 
may  be  a  dreamy  and  misty  expectation  of  gaining  eternal  life,  "  by 
deeds  of  righteousness  which  we  have  done,"  but  it  is  "  baseless  as 
the  fabric  of  a  vision." 

It  dispenses  with  the  atonement  of  Christ  Jesus,  and  "  there  is 
none  other  name  under  heaven  given  among  men  whereby  we  can 
be  saved."  No  "  other  foundation  "  for  acceptance  with  God  can 
any  man  lay,  "  than  is  laid."  There  is  no  possibility  of  salvation  to 
a  sinner,  but  through  Christ. 

The  merely  moral  man  gives  all  his  influence  to  bring  this  me- 
dium of  salvation  into  doubt  and  disrepute,  by  encouraging  men  to 
depend  upon  their  own  righteoiisncss.  They  shun  ^nd  spurn  ''  the 
foundation  stone  which  God  has  laid  in  Zion,"  and  point  to  the  quiv- 
ering quicksands  of  external  merit,  as  a  substitute.  They  tear  away 
the  Cross,  and  plant  in  its  place  the  ragged  banner  of  self-righteous- 
ness. Thus  they  array  their  influence — often  perhaps  in  dumb  un- 
consciousness— in  hostility  to  the  purposes  and  teachings  of  Jesus, 
and,  as  far  as  others  are  controlled  by  that  influence,  are  they  led 
along  the  way  that  ends  in  everlasting  destruction. 

In  one  very  important  respect,  the  influence  of  worldly  moralism 
is  more  baneful  than  that  of  open  and  odious  vice.  We  are  not 
speaking  of  the  inherent  character  of  these  diff*erent  classes  of  men, 
but  of  the  influence  exerted  by  their  examples  and  lives  upon  others, 
and  we  repeat  that,  in  one  view  of  the  subject,  the  lessons  of  the 
mere  moralist's  life  are  more  hurtful  than  those  of  the  utterly  vile 
and  profane. 

"  Vice  is  a  monster  of  such  hideous  mien, 
As,  to  be  hated,  needs  but  to  be  seen." 


348  THE   MERELY   MORAL   MAN. 

The  drunkard,  the  robber,  the  assassin,  the  riotous  and  profligate,  all 
stand  out  as  so  many  truthful  witnesses  of  the  deceitfulness  and 
deformity  of  sin,  and  frown  the  tempted  youth  from  the  entrance 
into  its  paths.  Who  would  transgress  God's  laws,  if  the  dread- 
ful results  to  which  sin  leads  were  continually  forced  upon  his 
gaze  ?  Who  would  slight  God's  mercy,  with  the  howls  of  the  damned 
always  ringing  in  his  ears  ?  When  we  see  one  debased,  brutalized, 
and  wretched,  from  sinful  indulgences,  we  are  repelled  from  the 
remote  beginnings  of  a  career  that  forebodes  such  n  termination. 
Thus,  depravity,  embodied  in  its  ugliest  shapes,  furnishes  niost  ter- 
rific warnings  against  persistence  in  sin.  The  thoughtful  youth  will 
not  follow  such  leading,  if  his  eyes  are  once  fairly  open  upon  the  goal. 

But  when  the  hand  of  the  respected  and  moral  father  is  affection- 
ately laid  in  the  hand  of  his  son,  how  easily  may  he  be  led  away  from 
God,  and  toward  destruction !  When  the  hideous  deformities  of  an 
impenitent  and  rebellious  heart  are  concealed,  by  the  robe  of  external 
virtue,  the  thoughtless  and  the  giddy  may  be  easily  drawn  astray. 

According  to  the  Mosaic  law,  the  man  who  was  but  partially  lep- 
rous— whose  appearance  did  not  plainly  reveal  the  loathsome  dis- 
ease— was  required,  under-  hea^vier  penalties  than  the  palpably-ulcer- 
ed victim,  to  separate  himself  from  all  intercourse  with  the  health- 
ful. The  reason  for  this  is  obvious.  Men  needed  no  special  warn- 
ing to  prompt  them  to  avoid  the  marked  leper.  But  the  concealed 
contagion  might  be  borne  unobserved  among  the  dwellings  of  the 
well.  So,  those  who  do  not  develop  in  its  loathsomeness  the  Icp- 
'rosy  of  sin — who  hide,  beneath  a  healthful  exterior,  the  direful 
plague — may  carry  and  spread  it,  where  the  openly,  udisomely  dis- 
eased dare  not  come. 

Again :  No  man  has  a  moral  right  to  pm*sue  any  course  of  con- 
duct— to  exert  any  kind  of  influence — which,  if  exerted  by  all,  would 
result  in  universal  wretchedness.  What  would  be  wrong  for  all  men, 
can  be  right  for  none.  Suppose  that,  from  this  day,  all  men  were  to 
resolve  to  be  governed  only  by  the  principles  of  a  m^re  worldly  mo- 
rality, how  terrible  and  ruinous  would  be  the  results  !  Our  Bibles 
and  churches  might  at  once  be  given  to  the  flames.  The  voice  of 
prayer  and  thanksgiving  would  be  forever  hushed.  All.  the  tender 
sympathies  and  loving  charities,  that  are  peculiar  to  Gospel  piety, 
would  be  exiled  from  the  world.  The  reins  of  government  would  be 
torn  from  the  hands  of  Jehovah,  for  man  would  submit  to  no  control 


THE   MERELY   MORAL    MAN.  349 

but  ttat  of  his  own  selfish  principles  and  will.  HoiTible  beyond 
imagining  Avould  be  the  result  of  the  universal  adoption  of  the  moral- 
ist's rule  of  life ! 

Thus  we  see  that  the  influence  of  the  whole  spirit  and  life  of  the 
merely  moral  man  is  arrayed  against  God  and  the  Gospel.  He  is  not 
with  Christ ;  he  is  against  Him. 

III.  Let  us  consider,  thirdly,  what  must  be  the  destiny 

OF  THE  MERELY  MORAL  MAN. 

He  cannot  be  admitted  to  association  with  the  ransomed  in  heaven, 
for  several  reasons : 

He  has  no  plea  of  justification  to  enter  at  the  bar  of  God  for  the 
sins  he  has  committed.  That  he.  has  transgressed  the  law  of  God, 
in  some  points,  he  dare  not  deny;  and  although  he  may  think  that 
his  guilt  is  but  trifling,  yet  the  least  taint  or  spot  is  sufiicient  to  ex- 
clude him  from  heaven,  for  "  there  entereth  nothing  that  defileth." 
"  He  that  ofi'endeth  in  one  point"— ^and  this  is  true  of  all  law,  human 
and  divine — is  gviilty,  wholly  guilty.  How,  then,  shall  he  be  justi- 
fied or  purified  for  heaven  ?  He  has  slighted  that  which  alone  can 
''cleanse  from  sin" — "the  blood  of  Christ."  ''He  trusted  in  him- 
self that  he  was  righteous."  And  no  despiser  of  Christ  can  ever  enter 
heaven.  There,  worship  of  Him  is  the  peculiar  employment  and 
enjoyment.  The  ransomed  hosts  love  to  swell  and  prolong  the 
chorus,  "  Worthy  is.  the  Lamb  that  was  slain ; "  "  Thou  hast  re- 
deemed us  to  God  by  Thy  blood."  In  such  doxology,  he  could  take 
no  part.  And  can  the  redeemed  of  the  blood  of  Jesus  regard  with 
complacency  those  who  have  slighted  their  Redeemer — who  have 
lived  and  died  unaffected  by  His  love — who  have  preferred  depend- 
ence upon  themselves  to  faith  in  Him  ?  How  could  he  associate  in 
loving  communion  with  them  ? 

Heaven  would  furnish  no  joy  for  such.  They  could  find  there  no 
pleasures  suited  to  their  taste.  They  have  never  loved  the  service 
and  worship  of  the  Saviour  upon  earth,  and  that  service  and  worship 
form  the  occupation  and  delight  of  the  redeemed.  There  is  nothing 
in  death  to  change  the  tastes  and  habitudes  of  the  soul.  The  pur- 
suits and  emotions  that  are  hateful  to  him  on  earth,  without  regen- 
eration, would  be  equally  so  in  heaven.  The  society  and  conversa- 
tion distasteful  to  him  here,  without  a  renewal  of  his  nature,  would 
be  even  more  distasteful  there,  for  it  will  be  more  holy.  There 
would  be  no  music  in  all  the  harps  of  heaven  for  his  ear. 


350  THE   MERELY   MORAL    MAN. 

You  perceive,  then,  that  the  worldly  moralist  is  not  excludecl  from 
heaven  for  flagrant,  debasing  crimes — for  sins  which  he  never  com- 
mitted. Some  speak  as  though  it  would  be  cruel  and  vindictive  in 
God  to  condemn  and  banish  from  His  presence  those  whose  lives 
have  been  so  moral  and  praiseworthy.  But  it  is  not  for  their  vir- 
tues— not  because  they  have  been  moral  and  upright — that  God  bars 
heaven  against  their  entrance.  He  is  just,  and  He  rewards  them, 
as  He  rewards  all,  "  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body."  They 
are  banished  from  God  and  heaven,  because  they  have  no  affinities 
for  them — because  there  is  no  adaptation  in  the  joys  of  heaven  to  the 
gratification  of  their  unchanged  natures — because  they  have  neg- 
lected and  hated  Jesus  Christ,  arrayed  all  their  influence  against 
His  benevolent  designs  for  the  regeneration  of  the  world — and  be- 
cause they  have  passed,  without  profiting,  the  only  period  during 
which  means  and  facilities  are  furnished  for  renewing  the  spirit,  and 
fitting  it  for  the  blessedness  of  heaven.  He  is  excluded  by  the  ne- 
cessities of  his  own  nature. 

As  the  mere  worldly  moralist  cannot  associate,  either  in  fact  or  in 
heart,  with  those  who  are  "  washed  and  sanctified  "  by  the  blood  of 
Jesus,  the  only  alternative  is,  that  he  must  find  companions  among 
devils  and  the  lost.  Oh !  thought  appalling,  and  burdened  with 
horror  !  The  moral  and  upright  man  of  the  world — the  volatile  and 
fastidious  daughter  of  fashion — those  who  have  shunned  companion- 
ship with  the  degraded  and  debased  upon  earth — who  have  withheld 
even  the  ordinary  tokens  of  recognition  from  a  former  friend,  dis- 
graced by  unfashionable  vice — those  who  have  been  welcome  guests 
in  "  good  society,"  as  it  is  termed  in  fashion's  technicalities;  for  such 
to  be  driven  to  mingle  eternally  with  robbers  and  assassins,  with  liars 
and  blasphemers,  with  drunkards  and  harlots,  with  the  most  debased 
and  vicious  of  earth — this  will  be  indeed  an  overwhelmingly  terrific 
doom.  There,  ears  accustomed  here  to  the  sweetest  music,  to  the 
softest  intonations  of  friendly  voices,  must  listen  to  the  grating 
curses  of  blasphemy  and  the  wailiugs  of  despair,  ^here,  eyes  that 
have  scarcely  looked  upon  aught  save  flowers  and  cheerful  faces,  must 
gaze  upon  contortions  of  agony  and  writhings  of  woe.  They  must 
themselves,  too,  become  objects  of  loathing,  and-subjects  of  hopeless 
despair.  Guilty  man,  living  without  Christ  in  the  world !  this  is  as 
certainly  true  as  the  AVord  of  God  is  true. 

Almighty  God !  avert  this  fearful  doom  from  him  who  reads  this 


THE   MERELY   MORAL   MAN.  351 

page.     Convince  and  renew  liis  soul  by  Thy  grace,  that,  repenting 

of  sin  and  believing  in  Jesus,  he  may  be  saved  through  His  atoning 

blood. 

REFLECTIONS. 

1.  It  is  right,  though  it  is  not  sufficient,  to  practice  the  most  rigid 
rules  of  moraliti/. 

It  was  not  for  tything  "  mint  and  anise  and  cummin  "  that  the 
Pharisees  were  condemned,  but  for  omitting  "judgment  and  mercy 
and  faith,  the  Aveightier  matters  of  the  law."  "  These  things  ought 
ye  to  have  done,"  said  Jesus,  "and  not  to  leave  the  others  undone." 
It  is  not  for  conforming  to  the  rules  of  a  strict  morality  that  God 
denounces  punishments  against  men,  but  for  the  neglect  of  the  prin- 
ciples and  spirit  of  piety.  The  mere  moralist  may  enumerate  and 
boast  of  his  good  deeds  and  benevolent  sympathies ;  he  may  tell  of 
his  alms  to  the  needy  and  his  charity  to  the  church ;  of  his  desire  for 
the  prosperity  of  Zion;  of  the  piety  of  his  kindred;  of  his  joys  for  the 
gladness  and  his  tears  for  the  sorrows  of  others;  and  we  will  believe 
him  and  honor  and  love  him  for  all. 

But  while  his  spirit  refuses  submission  to  Christ  Jesus,  while  he 
withholds  his  heart's  affections  and  fellowship  from  His  sufferings, 
while  he  proudly  lives  regardless  of  His  sacrifice  and  mediation,  Jesus 
ranks  him  among  His  enemies.  "  He  that  is  not  with  Me,  is  against  Me." 

2.  The  Lord  will  not  accept  any  compounding  of  one  class  of 
duties  for  another.  Men  are  much  disposed  to  plead  their  good 
deeds  as  an  offset  to  their  irreligion.  But  a  scrupulous  performance 
of  one  series  of  duties  can  never  excuse  negligence  of  uthers  of  equal 
or  superior  moment.  God  will  make  no  such  compromise.  He  will 
not — He  cannot,  consistently  with  His  attributes  and  the  interests 
of  His  moral  administration — approve  or  accept  a  partial  obedience. 
You  must  be  saved,  either  by  keeping  the  whole  law,  or  through 
faith  in  the  sacrifice  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  you  have  not  kept — you 
have  not  even  tried  to  keep — the  whole  law.  You  have  perhaps 
never  even  attempted  to  obey  those  commandments  which  require 
the  affections  of  the  heart  for  God  and  holiness.  You  have  sinned, 
and  yet  have  never  repented,  prayed  for  pardon,  believed  in  Jesus, 
nor  exercised  any  spiritual  emotions,  nor  performed  any  spiritual 
duties,  which  are  peculiar  to  the  Christian  spirit  and  life.  You 
cannot  be  saved  by  your  good  works,  for  these,  at  best,  have  been 
sadly  deficient;  nor  by  faith  in  Christ,  for  that  you  have  not  exercised. 


352  THE    MERELY   MORAL    MAN. 

"  Talk  they  of  morals  !     Oh,  Thou  bleeding  Lamb  ! 
The  great  morality  is  love  of  Thee!" 

Finally  :  Ponder  the  foUj  and  guilt  of  trusting  to  a  mere  God- 
less morality  for  salvation.  Ye  who  are  depending  upon  your  moral 
deeds  and  amiable  dispositions,  and  hoping  that  they  will  take  you 
to  heaven,  hear  and  heed  the  voice  of  warning  and  exhortation. 

Briefly  review  the  sentiments  that  have  been  advanced,  and,  in 
view  of  their  truth  and  weight,  build  upon  a  sure  foundation. 

You  have  contemplated  the  character  of  the  man  who  is  called  by 
the  world  moral,  and  have  seen  that  he  is  not  controlled  by  any 
regard  to  God's  law  in  what  he  does — that  he  mjikes  himself  his  own 
lawgiver — and  that  all  his  deeds  of  charity  and  kindness  may  be  con- 
sistent with  entire  selfishness. 

You  have  also  examined  the  inflxicnce  which  his  teaching  and  ex- 
ample exert  upon  the  world,  and  seen  that  it  induces  men  to  break 
away  from  the  restraints  of  godliness,  to  undervalue  the  blessedness 
of  piety,  to  slight  the  warnings  and  invitations  of  the  Gospel — that 
it  tends  to  the  overthrow  of  God's  government,  to  the  introduction 
of  universal  skepticism  and  misinile,  and  encourages  scorn  and  neg- 
lect of  the  great  salvation  provided  by  the  sacrifice  and  intercession 
of  Christ. 

.  You  have  been  forewarned  of  the  just  and  terrible  doom  that  must 
befiill  those  who  have  nothing  better  than  their  own  imperfect  right- 
eousness to  commend  them  to  God's  grace. 

A  wretched  maniac,  who  had  escaped  from  his  cell,  once  fancied 
that  he  would  be  beyond  the  reach  of  the  pursuing  keepers,  if  he 
could  only  gain  the  summit  of  the  glass  dome  upon  the  roof  of  the 
hospital.  He  ran  up  to  the  top  of  the  building,  rushed  along  its 
roof,  and  sprang  upon  the  brittle  structure.  It  crushed  under  him, 
.and  he  fell  upon  the  paved  hall  beneath,  a  mangled  corpse. 

So  may  you,  who  are  so  unwisely,  guiltily,  depending  upon  your 
own  defective  virtues — so  may  you,  in  your  moral  madness,  trust  the 
weight  of  your  soul  upon  the  smooth  and  glittering 'platform  of  self- 
merit,  but  it  will  not  sustain  the  burden.  It  is  built  over  the  gulf 
of  perdition,  and  the  crash  will  precipitate  you  into  the  burning 
waves.  Already  it  may  be  breaking.  Oh !  I'eap  from,  it,  into  the 
outstretched  arms  of  Jesus.  Upon  Him,  as  upon  the  rock  of  ages, 
you  may  depend.  There,  and  nowhere  else,  you  will  be  forever 
safe. 


!EVo(SEC5)ISffiE    [fficCQJSfflRflQRJScIDoLOo 


THE  ATTRACTIVE  POWER  OE  THE  CROSS  OF  CHRIST 


BY  REV. 

TOK     OF      KT 


.  D., 

4.  i<  T  I  .wo  [ 


be  lifted  Qti  fruu.  tb' 


U  UbU>  hi 


Ted,"  was  the 


lilt;  bitter 
mind 


aa  iiiuf- 


■msummataon  of  His  rc-de^minj. 


i'  coming  trimnpli 


:  iK        i  ■  nest  expression,  "I  have  a  baptism  to  be 

b;ij'tizod  with,  and  ni.nv  am  I  straitened  till  it  be  accomplis':    ''" 
Ilulice,  cveu  in  the  midst  of  the-tninHcendeut  glory  of  the  Tr 
1  nation,  and  in  communion  witli  the  glorified  spirits  of  Moses  av/d 
''^''~  convci-se  was  only  of ''His  decease  which  lie  f'      ■  ' 
■f)t  -Tf'r'i<'alom.''     .^r,-^  '•■»w.  as  the  hour  drawe  nijjl 
il  '•  .OSS  fal).^  m  Hira,  it  is;  almost  wi: 

•■  ■'^.■■<  I  i.uais,  "Now  is  the  jiidgm 

r  this  world  be  ca.st  out;  an^ 
;  i     iiiied  up  Irom  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  Me.' 
2.^ 


^Y.'<^'^t.'/^^U-^^>^ 


THE  ATTRACTIVE  POWER  OF  THE  CROSS  OF  CHRIST.       355 

vate  it,  by  testing  the  worth  and  power  of  other  means  to  effect  this 
great  design. 

I.  And,  first,  see  how  powerless  our  highest  natural  conceptions  of 
Grod  arc  to  awaken  love  to  Hiui.  The  instinctive  and  universal  feel- 
ing towards  God,  where  he  is  unknown  as  ''  God  in  Christ,"  as  "  the 
God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  is  a  feeling  of  dread. 
Where,  in  any  heathen  nation,  is  there  to  be  found  the  conception 
of  God  as  a  being  to  be  loved  ?  Where  does  love  mingle  with  their 
worship?  Is  it  not  all  fear,  dread,  terror?  What  is  the  meaning 
of  the  almost-universal  prevalence  of  human  sacrifices  ?  AVhat  mean 
the  offerings  to  IMoloch,  the  drownings  in  the  sacred  Ganges,  the 
immolations  under  Juggernaut's  car  ?  What  do  all  the  cruel  a^d 
bloody  rites  of  heathenism  mean  but  this — that  the  Deity  is  to  be 
/eared,  to  be  dreaded,  to  he  propitiated,  and  that  there  is  nothing  in 
His  character  to  awaken  love  ? 

And  this  feeling  has  its  basis  in  man's  moral  nature,  in  the  sense 
of  guilt  and  ill-desert,  in  the  law  written  by  the  finger  of  the  great 
Creator  upon  every  human  soul.  Tell  me  alone  of  the  omnipotence 
of  God  in  its  sublimest  aspects,  and  the  intelligence  is  only  fitted  to 
fill  me  with  alarm,  as  the  array  of  the  forces  of  Him  whose  power  I 
have  cause  to  fear.  Tell  me  of  His  unsullied  justice  alone,  and  I  am 
prompted  to  flee  from  the  face  of  Him  whose  laws  I  have  broken, 
and  whose  just  anger  I  have  incurred.  Tell  me  of  the  dazzling  holi- 
ness of  the  Being  "  in  whose  sight  the  heavens  are  not  clean,"  and 
rather  than  be  drawn  to  His  presence,  would  my  strongest  impulse 
be  to  call  upon  the  rocks  and  mountains  to  hide  me,  the  unholy  and 
unclean,  from  His  gaze. 

II.  Nor  is  nature,  or  tlie  visible  universe,  better  able  to  accomplish, 
this  great  work  of  drawing  the  heart  of  man  to  God,  where  the  uni- 
verse is  beheld  without  the  light  of  Ilevelation. 

Such  an  announcement  may  sound  strange  to  many  who  all  their 
lives  have  been  accustomed  to  "■  look  through  nature  up  to  nature's 
God."  There  are  certain  minds,  gifted  with  a  love  of  the  beautiful, 
and  elevated  by  a  high  degree  of  culture,  who,  as  they  behold  the 
radiant  glories  of  the  morning,  or  the  milder  beauty  of  the  setting 
sun,  the  splendor  of  night  when  the  firmament  is  all  glowing  with 
living  lights,  the  beauty  of  spring-time,  the  golden  harvest-fields  of 
summer  and  the  gorgeous  hues  of  autumn,  the  grandeur  of  mountain 
and  cataract  and  ocean,  can  only  see  incentives  to  love  towards  Him 


356       THE  ATTRACTIVE  POWER  OF  THE  CROSS  OF  CHRIST. 

who  traces  the  lines  on  every  leaf,  and  colors  every  flower  with 
beauty.  They  forget  how  much  of  the  beauteous  light  from  the 
face  of  nature  is  reflected  light  from  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of 
Jesus  Christ.  How  different  its  aspect  to  those  who  are  without  a 
knowledge  of  salvation  through  the  Redeemer !  Has  nature  ever 
taught  the  heathen  world  to  love  God  ?  Nay,  where  the  light  of  the 
Gospel  has  never  penetrated,  all  the  beauty  and  grandeur  and  sublim- 
ity of  this  goodly  universe  have  been  powerless  to  enkindle  in  the 
darkened  and  degraded  soul  one  throb  of  genuine  love  to  the  Cre- 
ator. 

Men  forget  also  that  nature  has  two  voices,  and  that  her  testimony 
is  far  from  being  harmonious  and  invariable.  If  tokens  of  goodness 
abound  on  every  side,  they  are  commingled  with  signs  of  severity. 
The  surface  of  the  earth,  so  fair  and  smiling  with  the  fruits  of  plenty, 
might  speak  of  the  hand  of  a  loving  and  bounteous  Father;  but 
within  and  beneath  the  soil  are  to  be  found  traces  of  convulsion, 
disaster,  and  ruin,  which  might  indicate  the  judgments  of  an  angry 
Deity.  The  gentle  refreshing  rain  of  summer  might  bear  one  testi- 
mony to  God,  and  the  fearful  tempest  or  desolating  tornado  another. 
The  air  of  heaven,  now  bringing  health  to  the  invalid's  wasted  frame, 
bears  witness  to  the  goodness  of  God;  while  the  same  element, 
ladened  with'  the  deadly  pestilence,  would  seem  to  testify  of  the 
harsh  severity  of  a  wrathful  Deity.  Cast  the  human  soul  out  amidst 
these  conflicting  testimonies  of  nature,  with  no  light  from  on  high 
to  reconcile  them,  and  to  blend  all  discordant  voices  into  one  harmo- 
nious utterance,  and,  so  far  from  the  heart  being  drawn  to  God,  it 
might  despair  to  find  whether  the  God  of  nature  were  indeed  a  God 
of  love. 

III.  Is  the  providence  of  God,  then,  able  to  do  what  nature  cannot? 
Alas  !  we  are  met  here  by  a  Ijke  impotency.  Conflicting  testimonies 
abound  here,  also.  Is  there,  on  the  one  band,  much  peace  and  com- 
fort ?  There  is,  on  the  other,  more  strife  and  want.  Here  is  a  land 
over  which  peace  smiles,  there  a  country  desolated  bv  the  ravages  of 
war.  Here  are  happy  homes,  with  unbroken  family  circles;  there 
are  darkened  apartments  and  silent  halls  and  cheerless  fii'esides.  On 
the  one  side,  I  hear  blithe  voices,  making  music  in  their  joy;  but 
again,  "  the  air  is  filled  with  sighings  and  wailings  for  the  dead;  the 
heart  of  Rachel,  for  her  children  mourning,  will  not  be  comforted." 
Thousands  bask  in  wealth;  tens  of  thousands  struggle  from  the  era- 


THE  ATTRACTIVE  POWER  OF  THE  CROSS  OF  CHRIST.       857 

die  to  the  grave  with  stern,  relentless  poverty.  The  best  of  men  arc 
often  the  most  severely  afflicted  and  sorely  persecuted — the  basest, 
oftentimes,  most  highly  exalted.  Amidst  scenes  like  these,  what  is 
there,  apart  from  this  lamp  of  God,  to  assure  the  human  mind  that 
the  God  of  providence  is  a  God  of  love — what  to  win  the  love  of  the 
heart  already  dead  to  Him  ? 

IV.  Now,  then,  the  great  question  returns  to  us,  yet  unsolved, 
how  can  the  heart  of  man  be  won  to  God  ?  For  love  must  be  won, 
alone.  No  other  influence  can  for  a  moment  be  allowed  to  have  sway 
here.  "  Authority  cannot  command  love.  Force  cannot  implant  it. 
Terror  cannot  charm  it  into  existence.  The  threateniugs  of  ven- 
geance may  stifle  or  may  repel,  but  never  can  call  forth  love  into 
being." 

Love  must  be  won,  but  hovj  won?  There  was  but  one  power 
mighty  enough  to  do  it,  and  that  power  was  love  itself.  All  the 
hoarded  love  of  the  heart  of  God  towards  His  erring  child  must  be 
manifested,  to  enkindle  a  return  of  love.  Oh  !  it  seemed  as  thouErh 
God,  who  knew  what  was  in  man,  knew  that  in  his  dark  and  guilty 
bosom  there  was  but  one  solitary  hold  that  he  had  over  him,  and 
that,  to  reach  this.  He  must  put  forth  all  the  might  of  the  Godhead 
in  His  display  of  love,  and  show  to  man  all  the  yearnings  of  a  Father's 
heart  over  a  wayward  and  yet  beloved  child.  And  this  was  done.  It 
was  by  a  love  which  left  nothing  more  that  God  could  do — a  love  in 
which  He  gave  His  highest,  richest  gift.  It  was  a  love  in  which 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  embarked  all  their  infinite  treasures. 
It  was  a  love  at  which  angels  wondered,  in  silent  adoration  and  awe. 
It  was  a  love  that  could  go  no  higher,  for  it  came  from  the  bosom  of 
the  Infinite — God  spared  not  His  Son ;  it  was  a  love  that  could  reach 
no  lower,  for  it  reached  to  the  Cross  of  ignominy  and  shame. 

This  was  God's  expedient  to  draw  to  Him  the  love  of  a  disaffected 
and  alienated  world.  This  is  the  meaning  of  the  Cross — love  stoop- 
ing to  win  the  human  heart — love  triumphing  over  all  difiiculties — 
love  making  its  last  and  most  powerful  appeal.  And  this  was  the 
meaning  of  Jesus  when  He  uttered  the  wondrous  prediction,  "  I,  if 
I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  Me ! "  He 
looked  beyond  "  the  offence  of  the  Cross,"  beyond  the  "  stumbling- 
block"  which  His  death  of  ignominy  might  prove  to  the  benighted 
Jew  or  contemptuous  Greek,  and  beheld  it,  "  the  power  of  God  and 
the  wisdom   of  God."     He   knew  that  even  as  the  hope  of  the 


358       THE  ATTRACTIVE  POWER  OF  THE  CROSS  OF  CHRIST. 

world's  redemptiou  hung  upon  that  last  crowning  act  upon  the 
Cross,  His  own  willing  sacrifice  as  the  Lamb  of  God,  "  bearing 
our  sins  in  His  own  body  on  the  tree,"  "  wounded  for  our  trans- 
gressions and  bruised  for  our  iniquities ; "  so  that  lowest  depth 
of  humiliation,  that  most  terrible  endurance  of  suffering,  that 
mightiest  evidence  of  the  love  of  God,  7mist  forever  draw  the 
hearts  of  men  to  Him.  He  saw  streaming  from  that  Cross  mighty 
and  irresistible  influences,  reaching  into  far-distant  ages,  unchanging 
and  unwasting,  ever,  while  time  lasted,  melting  human  enmity  and 
obduracy  into  tenderness  and  love.  He  saw  unborn  generations  look- 
ing to  the  spectacle  on  that  Cross,  even  as  the  dying  Israelites  looked 
to  the  serpent  of  brass,  and  in  that  look  of  faith  finding  life  unto 
their  souls.  He  saw  men  out  of  every  kindred  and  people  and  tribe 
and  tongue  "  looking  upon  Him  whom  they  had  pierced,  and  mourn- 
ing for  Him  as  one  mourning  for  a  first-born  son."  All  this,  and 
more  than  this,  passed  before  the  vision  of  the  blessed  Saviour,'  as 
He  uttered  these  prophetic  words.  And  the  vision  of  this  made 
Him  long  for  the  hour  of  His  "  vpli/tiiiff."  Even  then,  "  for  the  joy 
set  before  Him  " — the  joy  of  drawing  all  hearts  to  Him — He  longed 
to  "endure  the  Cross,  despising. the  shame."  Already  He  saw  of  "  the 
travail  of  his  soul,  and  was  satisfied."  Already,  it  may  be,  ^'  His  eav 
caught  the  far-distant  shout  of  His  redeemed  and  glorified  church, 
singing,  '  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain  I'  " 

V.  Now,  let  us  pass  to  mark  ih.c.  fulfilment  of  the  Ptedeemer's  pre- 
diction. How  has  that  strange  prophetic  utterance  been  verified? 
Has  the  blessed  Saviour's  vision  been  realized  ?  Has  the  Cross, 
with  its  scenes  of  agony  and  shame,  proved  a  mighty  magnet  every- 
where and  in  all  ages,  drawing  men  to  Christ? 

To  ask  the  question,  is  to  answer  it.  Scarcely  had  He  been  lifted 
up  upon  the  tree,  ere  that  vplifting  began  to  draw  human  hearts  to 
the  bleeding,  sufi"ering  Lamb  of  God.  It  won  the  centurion  at  the 
foot  of  the  Cross,  whose  admiring  exclamation  was,  "  trul>j  this  was 
the  Son  of  God!"  It  Avon  the  crucified  malefactor  q,t  His  side,  who 
believed  in  Him  when  all  other  faith  was  dead,  who  hailed  Him  as 
King,  even  while  wearing  the  crown  of  thorns,  and  whose  spirit,  ere 
the  sun  had  set,  ascended  with  Jesus  to  Paradise.  It  won  the  heart 
of  Joseph  of  Arimathea',  and  Nicodemus,  his  brother  counsellor, 
who  came  and  begged  His  body,  wrapped  it  in  costly  spices  and 
linen,  and  bore  it  to  an  honored  grave.     It  won  three  thousand 


THE  ATTRACTIVE  POWER  OF  THE  CROSS  OF  CHRIST.       359 

hearts,  between  the  rising  and  the  setting  of  a  single  sun,  on  that  day 
of  Pentecost,  when  they  who  were  guilty  of  His  blood,  found  in  that 
blood  pardon  and  peace  and  cleansing  for  the  soul. 

And  from  that  day,  the  mighty  process  has  gone  forward,  gather- 
ing strength  with  the  lapse  of  time.  "  Beginning  at  Jerusalem,"  and 
extending  through  all  the  coasts  of  Israel,  thousands  of  the  tribe  of 
Judah  were  gathered  to  this  their  Shiloh,  their  long-expected  Mes- 
siah. And  as  the  apostles  and  evangelists  Avent  throughout  the  civ- 
ilized world,  this  was  the  secret  of  their  wondrous  success.  They 
preached  the  doctrine  of  the  Cross,  salvation  thi-ough  the  crucified 
Redeemer;  and  it  was  this  which  drew  the  nations  to  His  feet,  found 
a  response  in  unnumbered  breasts,  and  soon  filled  the  Roman  Empire 
with  the  followers  of  the  Lamb.  And  in  every  age  and  period  since, 
among  all  tribes  and  nations  of  the  globe,  wherever  the  Cross  has 
been  uplifted,  wherever  Chi-ist  crucified  has  been  simply  and  faith- 
fully proclaimed,  innumerable  multitudes  have  been  drawn  to  Him, 
who  "  have  counted  all  things  but  loss,"  that  they  might  win  Christ. 
What  countless  millions  now  on  earth,  and  what  rejoicing  hosts  of 
the  redeemed  in  heaven,  ''whom  no  man  can  number,"  now  stand 
forth  as  "  a  cloud  of  witnesses  "  to  the  fulfilment  of  the  Redeemer's 
prophecy  as  He  looked  forward  to  His  Cross ! 

That  prediction  has  been  fulfilled  in  us.  There  was  a  time  in  our 
history  when  our  hearts  were  cold  and  dead  to  His  love,  and  there 
was  no  beauty  in  Him  that  our  souls  desired.  Now  He'  is  to  us  "  the 
fairest  among  ten  thousand,"  ''  the  pearl  of  great  price,"  the  rock 
of  our  salvation.  "What  has  wrought  this  wondrous  change  ?  What 
has  melted  our  iudifierence  to  adoring  gratitude  and  love?  One 
mighty  spectacle,  the  dying  Lamb  of  God,  the  Lord  of  glory  crucified 
for  us,  the  matchless  love  of  Jesus,  "  God  in  Christ,"  bearing  our 
sins  in  His  own  body  on  the  tree,"  dying,  "the  just  for  the  unjust, 
that  He  might  bring  us  to  God." 

"His  love  alone 
Has  broken  every  barrier  down." 

VI.  It  is  a  study  of  deepest  interest  to  look  along  the  line  of  the 
church's  history,  and  mark  how  powerfully  this  great  magnet  has 
attracted  to  Him  all  that  is  loftiest  and  noblest  in  human  character. 
All  along  the  stream  of  time,  for  eighteen  centuries,  there  has 
sounded,  from  hymns  of  praise  and  wrestlings  of  prayer,  this  great 
response  of  Christian  hearts,  "  Unto  Him  ivJio  loved  us  and  qave 


860       THE  ATTRACTIVE  POWER  OP  THE  CROSS  OF  CHRIST. 

Himself  for  us  and  redeemed  us  hy  His  hlood,  he  ejlovij  forever  I "  Go, 
searcli  among  the  dim  recesses  of  the  catacombs  of  ancient  Rome, 
where  the  early  Christians  of  that  city  sought  refuge  from  the  fury 
of  their  pei'secutors,  where  they  found  a  sanctuary  and  a  grave ;  and 
what  name,  above  all  others,  everywhere  meets  your  eye,  rudely  cut 
into  the  rock  ?  It  is  the  name  of  Jesus.  "  He  sleeps  in  Jesus  ;  " 
''she  rests  in  Christ" — such  is  the  burden  of  all.  "None  hut  Christ!" 
is  the  silent  testimony  from  the  martyr's  resting-place.  Take  the 
hymns  of  the  church,  from  its  earliest  to  its  latest  period,  the  truest 
expression  of  the  heart  of  Christendom ;  and  what  strain  pervades 
them  all,  from  the  songs  of  Ephraem  the  Syrian,  through  the  grand 
old  hymns  of  the  middle  ages,  like  the  Dies  Irae  of  Thomas  De  Ce- 
lano,  down  to  Watts  and  Wesley,  Cowper  and  Montgomery,  but  one, 
the  sublime  key-note  of  love  to  Jesus  ? 

"  Jesus  !  the  name  that  charms  our  fears, 
That  bids  our  sorrows  cease  ;  '       - 

'Tis  music  in  the  sinner's  ears, 
'Tis  life  and  health  and  peace." 

And  so  take  the  great  names  of  the  church,  her  elect  and  kingly 
spirits,  and  one  common  feature  stamps  them  all — the  heart  drawn 
to  Christ,  by  the  power  of  His  love — His  love  unto  death.  Hear 
"  that  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved,"  and  who  leaned  upon  His  bosom, 
give  utterance  to  the  great  truth  which  was  the  foundation  of  all 
his  Christian  life — "tve  love  Him  hecause  He  first  loved  lis!"  Then 
turn  to  his  very  opposite  in  temperament,  the  intellectual,  logical 
St.  Paul,  and  ask  the  secret  of  his  unsurpassed  activity  and  endu- 
rance for  the  Gospel,  and  this  is  his  reply — "  the  love  of  Christ  con- 
straineth  me  !  "  "  To  me  to  live  is  Christ !  "  Then  listen  to  the  fer- 
vent and  impulsive  St.  Peter,'  as  from  a  bursting  heart  he  exclaims, 
"  Lord,  Thou  knoivest  all  things,  Thou  hnoivest  that  Hove  Thee."  See 
the  love  of  Mary  of  Bethany,  as  she  breaks  upon  His  head  the  costly 
box  of  ointment,  not  too  costly  for  an  expression  of  her  devoted  love. 
Kecall  the  memories  of  Augustine  and  the  saintly  Mopica,  his  mother; 
or  Jerome  the  monk  of  Bethlehem ;  or  Thomas  a  Kenipis  and  Fene- 
lon ;  or  Leighton  and  Herbert  and  Ken  -,  or  Wesley  and  Doddridge 
and  Fletcher;  or  Marty n  and  Brainerd  and  Pay-son;  and  what  makes 
them  all  one,  kindred  by  one  holy  tie  ?  It  is  love  to  Christ.  It  is 
each  heart  draion  to  and  fixed  on  Christ,  won  by  the  attractive  power 
of  His  Cross. 


THE  ATTRACTIVE  POWER  OF  THE  CROSS  OF  CHRIST.       361 

But  fulfilled  as  this  prediction  has  been,  in  every  age  and  among 
every  generation,  there  is  yet  a  fulfilment  on  a  far  grander  scale 
awaiting  the  words  of  Jesus.  We  cannot  believe  that  all  the  sub- 
lime vision  which  then  passed  before  the  mind  of  the  Redeemer  has 
yet  been  realized.  He  is  "  to  see  of  the  travail  of  His  soul,  and  to  be 
satisjicd."  And  what  will  satisfy  His  great  heart  of  love,  less  than 
the  draicing  of  the  xchole  world  to  Ill's  Cross  P 

And  this  is  what  the  sacred  writers  everywhere  teach  us  will  yet 
take  place.  "  The  ichole  tporld  shall  he  filled  icith  His  glori/,"  is  the 
testimony  of  them  all.  The  Psalmist  tells  of  the  day  when  ''  the 
heathen  shall  be  given  to  Him  for  His  inheritance,  and  the  utter- 
most part  of  the  earth  for  His  possession ;  "  and  as  the  glory  of  that 
day  breaks  upon  His  vision,  He  pictures  the  redeemed  as  the  count- 
less dewdrops  from  the  womb  of  the  morning,  covering  the  face  of 
the  whole  earth  with  dazzling  beauty.  And  the  prophet,  as  he  sees 
the  coming  of  the  day  when  ''every  knee  shall  bow  and  every  ton^^ue 
confess  that  Christ  is  Lord,"  can  only  portray  its  majestic  grandeur 
by  the  image  of  the  ocean's  fulness  in  its  unfathomed  depths — ''/or 
the  earth  shall  he  full  of  the  hnoidedge  of  the  Lord,  as  the  vxiters  cover 
the  sea."  The  Cross  is  yet  to  draw  all  nations;  Christ  crucified  is 
yet  to  win  the  whole  world  to  a  willing  obedience.  Who  can  doubt 
that  Jesus,  in  that  hour  when  He  said,  "  now  is  my  soul  troubled  " 
looked  beyond  the  Cross,  and  "despised"  its  bitterness  and  ignominy 
in  "  the  joy  set  before  Him  "  of  the  whole  world  filled  with  converts 
to  His  name,  every  human  heart  a  shrine  of  love  to  the  Redeemer, 
every  voice  joining  in  the  mighty  anthem,  "Worthy  is  the  Lamb 
that  was  slain  ! " 

Then  "  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  shall  become  the  kingdoms  of 
our  God  and  of  His  Christ,  and  He  shall  reign  forever  and  ever." 
"  Arabia's  desert  ranger 

To  Him  shall  bow  the  knee ; 
The  Ethiopian  stranger 
His  glory  come  to  see. 

"  With  offerings  of  devotion, 

Ships  from  the  isles  shall  meet, 
To  pour  the  wealth  of  ocean 

In  tribute  at  His  feet. 

"Kings  shall  fall  down  before  Him, 
And  gold  and  incense  bring ; 


362      THE  ATTRACTIVE  POWER  OF  THE  CROSS  OF  CHRIST. 

All  nations  shall  adore  Him, 
His  praise  all  people  sing. 

"  For  He  shall  have  dominion 

O'er  river,  sea,  and  shore ; 
Far  as  the  eagle's  pinion 

Or  dove's  light  wing  can  soar. 

"For  Him  shall  prayer  unceasing 

And  daily  vows  ascend; 
His  kingdom  still  increasing, 

A  kingdom  without  end. 

"  The  mountain  dews  shall  flourish, 

A  seed  in  weakness  sown ; 
Whose  fruit  shall  spread  and  flourish, 

And  shake  like  Lebanon. 

"  O'er  every  foe  victorious. 

He  on  His  throne  shall  rest; 
From  age  to  age  more  glorious, 

All  blessing  and  all  blessed. 

"  The  tide  of  time  shall  never 

His  covenant  remove  ; 
His  name  shall  stand  forever, 

That  name  to  us  is  Love !  "  ■ 

Glorious  as  will  be  tliis  fulfilment  of  the  words  of  Jesus,  may  we 
not  believe  that  they  will  receive  a  still  sublimer  fulfilment?  When 
this  world  shall  have  passed  away,  and  the  "  new  heavens  and  the 
new  earth  "  shall  arise ;  when  all  the  redeemed,  of  every  age  and 
every  land,  shall  be  gathered  into  the  heavenly  Jerusalem ;  when 
patriarchs  and  prophets,  apostles  and  evangelists,  martyrs  and  con- 
fessors, shall  be  brought  into  one  eternal  home;  who  but  He  will 
be  the  centre  of  the  mighty  multitude,  to  whom  every  l;ieart  shall 
turn  with  rapture  and  ever-increasing  joy?  It  is  the  Lamb,  whom 
they  will  ''follow  whithersoever  He  goeth."  "We  may  believe,"  says 
a  glowing  writer,  "  that  throughout  eternity  Chris^  will  continue  to 
draw  all  men  to  Him;  still  will  He  be  the  point  towards  which 
sTiall  converge  whatsoever  hath  been  delivered  from  the  consequences 
of  man's  apostacy;  still  will  He  be  the  source- of  gladness,  the  well- 
spring  of  happiness,  to  the  myriads  who  have  entered  heaven  through 
the  virtue  of  His  blood;  to  Him  shall  the  ransomed  flock,  and  around 
Him  shall  they  congregate,  and  from  Him  shall  they  derive  acces- 


THE  ATTBACTIVE  POWER  OP  THE  CROSS  OF  CHRIST.       363 

Bions  of  kuowledge  and  fresh  materials  of  triumph;  and  this  Avill  be 
the  final  drawing  of  the  nations.  AVhen  the  men  of  every  age  and 
of  every  land,  linked  in  indissoluble  brotherhood,  shall  crowd  totvards 
the  Mediator  as  their  common  deliverer,  their  all  in  all,  and  cast 
their  crowns  at  His  feet,  and  sweep  their  harps  to  His  praise ;  oh  ! 
then  will  the  prophecy  receive  its  full  and  splendid  accomplishment, 
and  all  orders  of  intelligence,  connecting  the  crucifixion  as  a  cause 
with  this  ingathering,  will  bear  its  enraptured  witness  to  the  thorough 
verification  of  the  words,  '  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw  all 
men  unto  Me.'  " 

A  word  of  explanation,  and  also  of  warning,  is  needed  in  closing. 
No  passage  of  the  Bible  sets  forth  more  fully  the  universality  of  the  , 
atonement,  and  of  the  love  of  Christ.  ''  I  loill  draw  all  men,"  said 
the  Divine  Redeemer;  why,  then,  are  not  all  hearts  won  to  Him? 
Why  is  there  a  single  soul  without  the  fold  of  Christ'?  Alas  !  He 
can  onl>/  draw,  He  cannot  compel ;  He  can  only  attract ,  He  cannot 
constrain  by  force  the  love  of  the  human  heart.  Christ  died  for  all; 
He  draws  all;  He  yearns  for  all;  onh/  those  loho  resist  this  attraction 
arc  excluded  from  salvation. 

Oh,  then !  if  this  fail  to  win  the  heart,  there  is  nothing  else  left. 
Even  God  Himself  can  do  no  more  than  has  been  done.  The  sacri- 
fice of  Jesus  on  the  Cross  is  His  mightiest  effort;  it  is  love's  cost- 
liest gift.  In  that  crowning  effort  to  win  the  love  of  man  to  God, 
Infinite  wisdom  and  power  and  love,  have  exhausted  all  their  re- 
sources. And  the  Divine  Father's  great  and  everlasting  challenge 
to  every  soul,  unsaved  at  last,  will  be,  "  what  more  coidd  I  have 
done!" 


.MolF^iftiLK^JLt: 


GRIEVING  THE   SPIRIT 


.      Hi     li;5     ; 

:,  aa  the 
however,  is  wholly  inc; 
siuncr  from  the  st::1  •  ■ 
how  to  ^so'tpe  *-hi'' 


kin  A. 

li!  like  liiauner,  uii  tiio  f:}si<  rn-s  .■■ 
conteijt  themselves  with  our  external 
-'.]'■■■     V  which  to  propitiate  the  divj  IK 


t,  and  h:: 
iiicb  isstubboi 


infinite  i 


li.  C^itie 


piiiti* 


«n« 


itsp: 


tuiul.  .■■ 
eond:-. ... . 
ever  cleirlj ' 
neTer  n^  »!• 
avei5e,ilitj:" 

oriipmt.  i; 


IiiEeuiM.ta  m 

but  tilt  bo;- 
ofdivijeirs;.  „^ 

iD^Diteposjai^ 


GRIEVING   THE   SPIRIT.  367 

tion  is  enforced,  the  sealing  of  the  Spirit,  refers  not  to  His  first  in- 
fluence upon  the  hearts  of  the  impenitent,  but  presupposes  union 
with  Christ  and  the  existence  of  true  faith;  as  this  apostle  elsewhere 
testifies,  "■  in  whom  also,  after  that  ye  believed,  yc  were  sealed  with 
that  Holy  Spirit  of  promise."  If  it  were  prudent  to  offer  an  explana- 
tion of  this  striking  fact,  it  might  be  suggested,  that  as  the  later  and 
more  full  operations  of  the  Spirit  within  the  Christian  presuppose 
and  involve  His  earlier  influences  upon  the  sinner,  both  classes  are 
compendiously  embraced  in  the  references  which  seem  to  be  addressed 
only  to  one.  By  a  natural  and  even  necessary  deduction,  we  carry 
over  these  expostulations  from  the  church  to  the  world,  from  the 
Christian  to  the  unconverted  sinner,  as  being  by  necessary  implica- 
tion embraced.  Since  none  come  to  Christ  save  those  who  are  effect- 
ually called,  at  every  step  of  the  sinner's  return  to  God  he  is  under 
the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  by  whom  this  call  is  niediated;  who 
may  therefore  as  well  be  resisted  and  grieved  in  the  first  stage,  when 
He  convinces  of  sin,  as  at  the  last  stage  of  our  sanctification,  when 
we  are  made  meet  for  the  saints'  inheritance  in  light.  But  whatever 
explanation  may  be  offered,  there  is  no  diflSeulty  in  the  widest  ex- 
tension of  the  language  of  the  text.  Since,  from  first  to  last,  we  must 
feel  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  at  any  stage  from  first  to  last  of 
our  career,  we  are  in  danger  of  grieving  Him;  and  the  exhortation 
is  quite  as  pointed  to  the  sinner  as  to  the  saint. 

In  this  large  application,  then,  of  the  text  to  all  classes  of  men 
with  whom  this  Spirit  may  be  dealing,  I  propose  to  consider  the  rea- 
sons Vjliy  none  should  permit  themsclvps  to  grieve  Him. 

I.  Because  of  the  solemnity  of  so  personal  and  recognised  a  contact 
loith  God. 

We  are  at  all  times  in  contact  with  God,  and  surrounded  with  His 
presence.  There  is  no  hiding  place  within  the  universe,  whicli  is 
not  penetrated  by  the  eye  of  His  omniscience,  and  covered  by  the 
hand  of  His  protection.  "  Whither  shall  we  go  from  His  Spirit,  or 
whither  shall  we  flee  from  His  presence  ?  If  we  ascend  into  heaven, 
lie  is  there ;  if  we  make  our  bed  in  hell,  behold.  He  is  there.  If 
we  take  the  wings  of  the  morning,  and  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts 
of  the  sea;  even  there  shall  His  hand  lead  us,  and  His  right  hand 
shall  uphold  us ;  even  the  night  shall  be  light  about  us ;  the  dark- 
ness and  the  light  are  both  alike  to  Him."  Yet  is  this  dreadful 
truth  not  always  so  discovered  to  us  as  to  enlist  the  devotional  senti- 


368  GRIEVING   THE    SPIRIT. 

ment  of  the  soul.     But  if  our  sensibilities  be  not  utterly  blunted, 
and  conscience  entirely  seared,  there  are  seasons  when  we  must  feel 
solemnly  impressed  as  God  draws  more  nearly  and  personally  in  con- 
tact with  us.     In  times  of  sickness,  when  our  couch  is  watered  with 
tears,  and  the  strong  man  is  bowed  down  with  pain  and  "  brought 
into  the  dust  of  death ;  "   in  seasons  of  bereavement,  when  God 
"  darkens  the  earth  in  the  clear  day,"  and  death  comes  in  at  the 
window,  and  we  are  shut  up  to  solitary  communion  with  our  own  sad 
and  bitter  thoughts ;  in  the  pestilence,  when  the  angel  of  death  flaps 
his  black  wing  over  the  city,  and  the  mourners  go  about  the  streets, 
and  there  is  not  a  house  which  does  not  weep  for  its  dead ;  in  the 
famine,  when  "  the  seven  ears  are  withered,  thin,  and  blasted  "  on 
the  stalk,  and  want,  like  a  grim  and  ghastly  spectre,  strides  over  the 
land,  snatching  the  black  crust  from  the  mouths  of  crying  babes ; 
when  war,  with  his  bloody  heel,  treads  upon  the  whitening  bones  of 
his  slaughtered  victims,  and  the  widow's  wail  mingles  with  the  or- 
phan's cry  in  a  concert  of  anguish ;  in  the  storm  and  tempest,  when 
hoarse  thunders  roll  down  the  pavement  of  the  sky,  or  startling  peals 
discharge  in  one  volley  the  whole  artillery  of  heaven,  and  the  sharp 
lightnings  cleave  the  clouds  like  the  flashing  swords  of  angry  cheru- 
bim :  who,  then,  does  not  stand  in  silent  awe,  and  tremble  before 
these  symbols  of  the  divine  majesty  and  presence?     We  speak  not 
"  here  of  that  slavish  terror  which  quails  before  the  mere  tlxought  of 
Aliuighty  force ;  but  of  that  holy  dread,  which  may  fill  the  bosom 
even  of  a  seraph,  as  he  looks  uncovered  upon  the  fa<3e  of  Jehovah's 
throne.     Yet  not  in  one  nor  all  of  these  does  God  come  so  nigh  or 
make  such  disclosures  of  tfis  presence,  as  when  by  His  Holy  Spirit 
He  enters  within  the  sanctuary  of  the  human  breast.     In  all  these 
acts  of  providence,  however  near  God  may  be,  and  with  whatsoever 
closeness  of  pressure.  He  is  still  iclthout  us ;  but  through  His  Spirit 
the  shadow  of  His  awful  presence  is  cast  within  the  veil,  and  meets  us 
alone  in  the  sacred  chambers  of  the  soul.  He  lays  His  holy  hand  upon 
our  very  thoughts,  turns  the  eurrentof  our  affections  into  new  channels, 
and  makes  the  heart  beat  with  the  pulse  of  a  new  and  strange  life. 

Shall  we  not  exclaim,  with  the  prophet,  when  he  saw  the  skirts  of 
the  divine  glory  filling  the  temple,  ''  woe  is  me  !  for  I  am  undone  ; 
for  mine  eyes  have  seen  the  King,  the  Lord  of  hosts ! "  We  may 
therefore  endorse  this, ''  the  argument  of  reverence ;  "  and  store  it  in 
the  heart,  that  we  may  "  not  grieve  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God." 


GRIEVING   THE   SPIRIT.  369 

II.  Because  He  draws  noar  to  ^ls  onhj  to  hring  home  to  ovr  hearts 
the  overtures  of  God's  infinite  love. 

Have  you  ever  considered  the  fact  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  the  only 
person  of  the  Godhead  whose  name  is  not  associated  with  offices  of 
terror  and  of  wrath  ?  The  Father,  as  first  in  the  order  of  thought, 
is  the  original  fountain  of  all  authority.  By  Him  the  Son  is  sent 
into  the  world,  and  the  seal  of  His  commission  gives  validity  to  all 
the  Mediator's  acts.  To  Him  the  glory  of  all  Christ's  miracles,  and 
the  wisdom  of  all  His  doctrines,  are  continually  referred.  The  whole 
work  which  He  finished  upon  earth  was  the  work  which  the  Father 
gave  Him  to  do.  As  the  sacred  three,  in  the  language  of  Erskine, 
"sat  together  around  the  council  board  of  redemption,"  in  the  dis-> 
tribution  of  offices  there  made,  the  Father  assumed  to  be  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  Godhead,  to  hold  in  His  hands  the  divine  law,  and 
the  reins  of  universal  empire.  It  belongs  officially  to  Him  to  "reveal 
from  heaven  the  wrath  of  God  against  all  ungodliness  and  unrio-ht- 
cousness  of  men ;  "  to  execute  the  penalty  upon  the  sinner,  or  else 
upon  his  substitute;  and  to  pass  the  judicial  decree,  by  which  the 
one  and  the  other  are  justified  and  declared  righteous  together.  Of 
course,  it  is  impossible  to  think  of  Him  but  as  clothed  with  "terrible 
majesty."  "Clouds  and  darkness  are  round  about  Him;  justice 
and  judgment  are  the  habitation  of  His  throne."  "When  He  is 
wroth,  the  earth  trembles,"  and  "the  perpetual  hills  do  bow." 
"When  He  thundereth  in  the  heavens,  and  the  Highest  giveth  His 
voice,  hailstones  and  coals  of  fire  pass  before  Him."  "At  the  blast 
of  the  breath  of  His  nostrils,  the  channels  of  waters  are  seen,  the 
foundations  of  the  earth  are  discovered."  Under  this  goroeous  im- 
agery, in  which  the  whole  frame  of  nature  is  seen  dissolving  at  His 
presence,  do  the  Scriptures  represent  the  awful  majesty  of  God,  and 
the  supremacy  of  His  jurisdiction  as  a  lawgiver  and  a  judge. 

In  like  manner,  the  Son,  though  He  is  the  author  of  grace,  has 
another  revelation  of  Himself  as  full  of  terror  as  that  is  of  mercy. 
He  is  not  only  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  but 
also  the  Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  who  shall  rend  the  wicked  in 
His  fury.  Over  His  Cross  may  indeed  be  read  the  inscription, 
"God  so  loved  the  world;"  yet  beyond  and  against  that  Cross  may 
be  seen  the  throne  of  His  power,  beneath  which  all  principality  and 
power  and  might  and  dominion  and  every  name  that  is  named,  not 
only  in  this  world,  but  also  in  that  which  is  to  come,  are  seen  to  be 
24 


370  GRIEVING  THE   SPIRIT. 

put.  ^' Tlie  Father  judgetli  no  man,  but  hath  committed  all  judg- 
ment unto  the  Son ; "  "  for  He  hath  appointed  a  day  in  which  He 
will  judge  the  world  in  righteousness  by  that  man  whom  He  hath 
ordained ;  whereof  He  hath  given  assurance  unto  all  men,  in  that 
He  hath  raised  Him  from  the  dead."  In  the  last  great  assize,  all 
nations  shall  be  gathered  before  Him ;  He  shall  come  in  the  clouds 
of  heaven,  with  His  own  glory  and  with  the  glory  of  His  Father, 
and  "  all  the  tribes  of  the  earth  shall  mourn,"  as  He  shall  sit  upon 
the  great  white  throne,  and  pronounce  the  sentences  of  destiny. 
Amidst  the  terrors  of  a  burning  world,  when  the  heavens  are  rolled 
together  as  a  scroll,  and  the  elements  shall  melt  with  fervent  heat, 
the  wicked  are  represented  with  awful  significance  as  calling  upon 
the  rocks  and  mountains  to  fall  upon  them,  and  hide  them  from  "the 
wrath  of  the  Lamb."  Paradoxical  as  the  expression  may  seem, 
there  is  no  phrase  in  all  the  Scriptures  more  full  of  woe  or  pregnant 
with  despair  than  this,  "the  wrath  of  the  Lamb.'*  Certainly,- no . 
one  can  go  around  the  circle  of  Christ's  ofiices  without  solemn  dread 
of  the  commission  He  is  hereafter  to  execute  as  the  Judge  of  quick 
and  dead. 

If,  however,  we  turn  from  these  to  the  person  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
He  sustains,  in  the  economy  of  grace,  no  office  but  that  of  tenderness 
and  love.  Though  equal  with  the  Father  and  the  Son,  He  descends 
upon  no  "  mount  that  may  be  touched,"  surrounds  Himself  with  no 
"blackness  and  darkness  and  tempest,"  speaks  not  to  us'  "with  the 
sound  of  trumpet "  nor  with  "  the  voice  of  words."  No  symbols  of 
dreadful  majesty  strike  through  the  soul  with  terror  when  He  makes 
His  advent.  With  quiet  yet  resistless  power.  He  gently  slides  into 
the  breast,  and  speaks  the  words  of  love  by  which  the  stubborn  sin- 
ner is  so  sweetly  persuaded.  May  the  pulpit  ever  be  restrained  from 
uttering  a  sentence  which  shall  abate  our  conceptions  of  the  Saviour's 
infinite  compassion  and  grace  !  It  was  surely  a  "love  which  passeth 
knowledge"  that  brought  Him  from  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  to 
"  endure  the  contradiction  of  sinners  against  Himsejf."  The  extent 
of  His  condescension  cannot  be  measured,  unless  we  could  penetrate 
the  fellowship  of  the  Godhead,  and  know  the  wealth  of  the  Father's 
love  eternally  lavished  upon  Him.  Nor,  unless  we  could  estimate 
the  recoil  of  His  holy  nature  from  all  sin,  can  we  appreciate  the  com- 
passion which  led  Him  to  bear  the  dishonor  and  shame  of  our  sin, 
and  to  cry  out,  in  His  anguish,  "Reproach  hath  broken  My  heart." 


GRTEVIXG   THE    SPIRIT.  371 

But  let  us  not,  on  the  other  hand,  disparage  the  equal  condescension 
of  the  Eternal  Spirit,  when  He  descends  into  the  heart,  which  is  as 
"a  cage  of  unclean  birds,"  and  brings  His  purity  into  contact  with 
all  the  taint  and  defilement  of  our  nature.  This  is  the  love  of  the 
Son,  that  He  "  became  sin  for  us,  that  we  might  be  made  the  right- 
eousness of  God  in  Him ; "  and  this  is  the  love  of  the  Spirit,  that  no 
unclcanness  ever  shuts  Him  out  from  the  soul  He  would  purge  and 
render  fit  for  communion  with  God.  The  very  name  by  which  His 
official  work  is  defined  describes  His  compassion ;  He  is  the  Com- 
forter. Though  He  "  reproves  the  world  of  sin  "  "and  of  judgment 
to  come,"  it  is  by  the  exhibition  between  the  two  of  that  righteous- 
ness by  which  the  one  is  covered  and  the  other  is  stripped  of  its 
terrors;  and  through  Him  the  promise  is  fulfilled  to  the  mourner, 
that  he  shall  be  comforted.  He  is  therefore  pre-eminently  the  ex- 
pounder of  God's  love,  bringing  it  home  to  us  in  the  hour  of  despair, 
and  making  it  the  hope  and  joy  of  the  soul  forever.  We  may  there- 
fore endorse  this,  "the  argument  of  gratitude;"  and  lay  it  up  in  the 
memory,  that  we  may  "  not  grieve  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  by  whom 
we  are  sealed  unto  the  day  of  redemption."  Our  aiFections  yield  to 
the  voice  of  human  kindness,  as  the  strings  of  the  ^olian  harp  give 
responsive  music  to  the  soft  breath  of  summer.  Shall  not  this  argu- 
ment, appealing  to  "  the  memory  of  the  heart,"  touch  every  senti- 
ment that  is  noble  and  generous  within  us  ?  And  w^iat  damning 
proof  of  the  sinner's  enmity  against  God  is  given,  when  he  is  not 
subdued  by  this  argument  of  love  ! 

III.  Because,  if  ever  saved,  it  must  he  through  this  very  influence 
of  the  Sjnrit  which  ice  are  here  exhorted  to  recognise. 

Nothing  is  more  common  than  to  parry  the  warnings  and  expostu- 
lations of  the  Bible  by  the  flippant  excuse,  "  I  do  not  know  that  I 
am  chosen  to  salvation."  Does  the  sinner  know  with  any  more  cer- 
tainty, on  the  other  hand,  that  he  is  appointed  to  destruction  ?  Can 
he  ascertain  either  except  by  the  result  ?  Does  anything  remain  to 
him  but  to  "  make  his  own  calling  and  election  sure  " — "  working 
out  his  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling,"  knowing  that  "  it  is 
God  which  workcth  in  him  to  Avill  and  to  do  of  His  good  pleasure?" 
And  will  he  permit  us  to  say,  with  all  possible  affection,  yet  with  as 
much  frankness,  that  this  language  is  on  his  lips  as  foolish  as  it  is 
wicked,  as  absurd  as  it  is  profane  ?  The  secret  purposes  of  God  can 
never  be  to  him  a  rule  of  action,  simply  because  they  are  secret; 


372  GRIEVING   THE   SPIRIT. 

and  for  the  same  reason,  they  can  never  be  the  motive  by  which  he 
is  constrained  on  the  one  hand  to  receive  Christ,  nor  upon  the  other 
to  reject  Him.  By  the  very  constitution  of  our  nature,  that  cannot 
be  to  us  a  controlling  law  nor  an  operative  motive,  which  is  to  us 
totally  unknown.  It  is  therefore  in  accordance  not  only  with  the 
modesty  of  true  piety,  but  also  with  the  maxims  of  sound  philosophy, 
when  the  Scriptures  say  that  "  secret  things  belong  to  God,  but  the 
things  which  are  revealed  belong  to  us  and  to  our  children."  Not 
only  ought  the  sinner  to  act  only  under  the  influeuce-of  the  latter, 
but  it  is  simply  impossible  that  he  ca7i  act  under  the  influence  of  the 
former.  He  who  supposes  his  decision  to  be  afiected  in  the  one  di- 
rection or  in  the  other  by  the  undiscovered  purposes  of  God,  passes 
upon  his  understanding  a  most  singular  delusion.  Undoubtedly,  the 
sinner  may  resent  the  fact  that  God  has  purposes  which  He  chooses 
not  to  disclose,  and,  with  a  peevishness  that  would  be  ludicrous  if  it 
were  not  fraught  with  consequences  so  terrible,  may  continue 'to 
resist  the  divine  supremacy,  to  his  own  everlasting  discomfiture. 
But  these  purposes  themselves,  so  long  as  they  are  closely  veiled 
from  his  view,  can  never  constitute  the  reasons  of  his  choice.  It  is 
one  thing  to  be  angry  with -God.  because  He  has  purposes,  and  another 
thing  to  be  determined,  in  this  direction  or  in  that,  by  the  discovery 
of  what  these  purposes  are.  If  they  be  wholly  unknown,  they  afibrd 
no  reason  by  which  the  judgment  can  be  influenced ;  and  to  suppose 
a  decision  resting  upon  them,  is  to  suppose  an  effect  without  a  cause. 
If  it  be  said  the  sinner's  embarrassment  proceeds  from  this  very  sus- 
pense arising  out  of  his  ignorance  of  God's  will  in  regard  to  him, 
this  assumes  that  God's  will,  if  ascertained,  would  be  a  controlling 
motive  to  obedience.  But  God's  will  is  known  in  what  lie  actually 
reveals.  He  "  now  commaudeth  all  men  everywhere  to  repent." 
Jesus  Christ  is  sincerely  ofiei-ed,  with  the  assurance  that  whosoever 
believeth  shall  be  saved ;  and,  with  this  promise,  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
freely  given,  that  the  sinner  may  both  believe  and  repent.  Why 
should  not  this  suflSce,  if  the  discovery  of  God's  wili  be  only  want- 
ing as  the  sufficient  motive  to  determine  the  choice  ?  We  submit 
that  the  sinner's  reasoning  should  be  precisely  the  reverse  of  what  is 
implied  in  the  flippant  language  which  we  now  rebuke.  Let  him 
argue  thus :  I  read  in  thfe  record  that  none  are  saved  but  those  who 
come  to  Christ;  that  none  come  to  Christ  but  those  whom  the  Father 
draws;  that  none  are  drawn  but  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 


GRIEVING   THE    SPIRIT.  873 

That  blessed  agency,  which  is  so  indispensable,  is  now  experienced 
by  me.  Instead,  therefore,  of  pausing  to  pry  into  the  deep  things  of 
God,  which  are  reserved  for  the  disclosures  of  the  great  day,  I  am 
encouraged,  by  this  collation  of  facts,  to  yield  myself  freely  to  that 
mysterious  power  which  can  alone  conduct  me  to  the  feet  of  Jesus. 
Let  the  sinner  take,  further,  the  testimony  of  all  the  redeemed.  Let 
him  summon  the  thousand  witnesses  for  Christ  now  upon  the  earth, 
and  then  the  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand,  and  thousands  of  thou- 
sands, whom  John  saw  before  the  throne,  and,  without  dissent,  they 
will  all  testify,  that  by  just  such  power  as  he  now  begins  to  feel,  were 
they  brought  into  a  state  of  salvation.  They,  just  as  he,  were  roused 
from  apathy,  and  were  made  to  feel  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come  > 
they,  just  as  he  must,  were  led  to  "  loathe  and  abhor  themselves,''  and 
to  "  cast  themselves  upon  the  mercy  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus."  Then,  by 
all  that  he  now  feels,  may  he  hope  that  a  good  work  is  begun  within 
him,  which  will  be  carried  on  till  the  day  of  Christ.  The  true  de- 
duction leads  not  to  despondency  and  cavil,  but  to  hope  and  joyful 
trust;  for  he  can  be  saved  only  through  those  influences  which  are 
now  consciously  experienced,  and  which  he  is  exhorted  to  cherish. 
We  may,  then,  endorse  this,  "  the  argument  of  interest ;  "  and  let  it 
restrain  the  sinner  from  foolishly  perilling  his  salvation  by  grieving 
now  away  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God. 

IV.  Because  the  Scriptures  hedge  about  the  office  and  work  of  the 
IIolij  Ghost  icith  very  solemn  aiid pecidiar  sanctions. 

It  has  been  already  said  that  He  is  the  only  person  of  the  God- 
head who  sustains  no  ofl&ce  of  wrath,  and  is  attended  by  no  symbols 
of  terrible  majesty.  This,  however,  is  one  of  those  partial  truths 
which  might  mislead,  unless  qualified  by  the  statements  now  to  be 
made.  Perhaps,  for  this  reason,  His  person  and  office  are  guarded 
by  the  most  fearful  warning  found  within  the  Bible.  "  Wherefore 
I  say  unto  you,  all  manner  of  sin  and  blasphemy  shall  be  forgiven 
unto  men,  but  the  blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost  shall  not  be 
forgiven  unto  men ;  and  whosoever  speaketh  a  word  against  the  Son 
of  Man,  it  shall  be  forgiven  him ;  but  whosoever  speaketh  against 
the  Holy  Ghost,  it  shall  not  be  forgiven  him,  neither  in  this  world, 
neither  in  the  world  to  come."  It  thus  appears,  "  there  is  a  sin  unto 
death  " — one  form  of  transgres.sion  which  is  excepted  from  all  hope 
of  pardon,  which  the  infinite  goodness  of  God  refuses  to  cover,  and 
for  which  the  prayer  of  intercession  may  not  be  offered  ]  and  that  sin 


374  GRIEVING   THE    SPIRIT. 

can  only  he  committed  against  the  person  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  may- 
be irreverent  to  inquire  into  the  reasons  of  this  remarkable  limita- 
tion. Perhaps  it  is  because  the  Holy  Spirit  is  the  third  and  last 
person  of  the  adorable  Trinity,  so  that  he  who  sins  finally  and  fatally 
against  Him  has  sinned  past  the  entire  Godhead.  He  that  trans- 
gresseth  against  the  person  and  law  of  the  Father  may  yet  be  for- 
given through  the  infinite  merits  and  prevalent  intercessions  of  the 
Son  3  and  he  that  sins  against  the  person  and  office  of  the  Son,  may 
yet  be  overtaken  by  the  resistless  might  and  grace  of  the  Spirit; 
but  when  the  Spirit  is  grieved  away,  there  remains  behind  no 
other  person  who  may  gather  up  the  resources  of  the  Godhead,  and 
bring  them  to  the  sinner's  rescue.  Or,  perhaps  it  is  because  to  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  assigned  the  office  of  applying  the  scheme  of  redemp- 
tion ;  so  that  he  who  sins  against  Him  finally  has  sinned  against  the 
Gospel  in  its  last  stage,  just  where  it  is  intended  to  bear  upon  human 
destiny ;  and  having  sinned  past  the  scheme  of  grace,  "  there  remains 
no  more  sacrifice  for  sin,  but  a  certain  fearful  looking  for  of  judg- 
ment and  fiery  indignation  which  shall  devour  the  adversaries."  Or, 
it  may  be  in  compensation  for  the  lowliness  of  the  Spirit's  con- 
descension ;  because,  in  discharging  the  office  of  Comforter,  He  must 
come  with  a  gentleness  that  shall  not  alarm  the  timid  soul,  and 
descend  into  contact  with  the  lowest  impurity  of  the  sinner's  heart; , 
'because  he  must  stand  thus  seemingly  defenceless  before  the  sinner, 
and  submit  to  all  the  outrage  of  the  sinner's  resistance  and  scorn, 
therefore  He  must  bear  this  solemn  seal  of  the  Father  and  the  Son, 
who  throw  around  his  person  the  sanctions  of  their  own  official  great- 
ness and  severity.  But  without  pausing,  with  prurient  curiosity,  to 
pry  into  the  reasons  of  this  awful  warning,  the  fact  itself,  in  its  fear- 
ful solemnity,  is  sufficient  for-  us.  Trifle  not  with  this  person  of  the 
Trinity,  since  the  one  sin  which  God  will  never  forgive  is,  and  can 
be,  perpetrated  only  against  Him.  Nor  is  it  essential  to  the  import 
of  this  warning,  that  we  should  define  precisely  the  nature  of  this 
sin.  That  it  is  special,  and  does  not  involve  every  act  of  resistance, 
is  evident ;  since,  otherwise,  the  whole  human  race  would  be  cut  off 
from  the  hope  of  salvation.  Which  one  of  all  the  redeemed,  on 
earth  or  in  heaven,  but  consciously  has,  at  some  stage  in  his  career, 
resisted  and  grieved  thfi  Holy  Spirit?  This  dreadful  offence,  there- 
fore, described  under  the  strong  term  of  blasphemy,  must  import 
something  more  than  the  ordinary  resistance  of  the  unrenewed  will. 


GRIEVING   THE    SPIRIT.  375 

It  must  imply  a  confirmed  and  malignant  opposition  of  the  soul  to 
holiness  and  God,  such  as  can  alone  admit  the  wilful  and  habitual 
traducing  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  fulfilment  of  His  glorious 
and  benign  mission.  But,  even  in  this  view,  the  warning  is  not 
the  less  significant.  It  may  be  presented  thus :  He  that  con- 
sciously sins  against  the  Spirit,  in  the  face  of  such  a  woe  here  de- 
nounced, has  no  guaranty  that  he  may  not  be  judicially  abandoned 
of  God  to  sin  that  sin  which  shall  never  be  remitted.  This  side  of 
the  judgment  bar,  there  are  awful  sanctions  by  which  Jehovah 
guards  both  His  law  and  the  Gospel  of  His  grace;  and  the  most 
fearful  of  these  is  the  withholding  of  His  restraints,  and  punish- 
ing sin  by  allowing  the  commission  of  other  sins  which  are  deeper. 
Your  present  resistance  of  the  Holy  Ghost  may  not  be  "  the  sin  which 
is  uuto  death,"  but  it  may  be  the  first  step  in  the  path  of  declension 
which  terminates  in  that  fearful  abyss.  Grieved  by  ordinary  and  per- 
sistent rejection,  this  blessed  agent,  whose  commission  is  sealed  by  the 
Father  and  the  Son,  may  depart;  and  He  that  sitteth  upon  the  throne 
may  lift  His  right  hand  in  the  dreadful  oath,  "  My  Spirit  shall  no  more 
strive  ! "  The  withering  sentence  may  be  pronounced,  "  Let  him 
alone ! "  Thus  judicially  abandoned,  with  all  the  restraints  of  prov- 
idence and  grace  withdrawn,  the  sinner  may  go  on  from  sin  to  sin, 
until  the  last  dreadful  act  of  treason  is  consummated  in  the  blas- 
phemy against  God's  Eternal  Spirit.  We  may  therefore  endorse 
this,  "the  argument  of  warning;"  and,  by  the  terrors  of  the  Lord, 
persuade  the  sinner  not  to  trifle  with  the  thunders  of  Jehovah's 
Word.  Rise  not  up  now,  in  the  stubbornness  of  your  pride,  and 
say,  "  We  will  not  be  frightened  into  submission  by  the  echoes  of  a 
penalty  like  this."  Eemember  that  the  language  of  bravado  is  always 
the  language  of  cowardice  and  of  falsehood.  It  is  right  to  be  afraid 
of  God,  when  He  speaks  to  us  in  the  majesty  of  His  law.  And  when 
these  warnings  come  as  the  foreshadowing  of  His  stern  retributive 
justice,  and  are  addressed  to  our  judgment  and  conscience,  rather 
than  to  our  sense  of  fear,  they  can  only  be  disregarded  by  the  reck- 
lessness that  is  blind,  or  by  the  folly  that  is  mad.  The  flaming- 
sword  which  turneth  every  way  guards  the  person  of  that  Divine 
Spirit,  who  comes  to  the  sinner  the  last  exponent  of  God's  infinite  love. 
He  who  rushes  upon  that  sword  dies  by  the  hand  of  God;  while  mercy 
and  love,  outraged  and  despised  by  the  sinner,  vindicate  themselves  by 
echoing  the  decree  which  inflexible  justice  both  issues  and  executes. 


876  GRIEVING   THE   SPIRIT. 

But  some  one  may  arise  here  and  say,  Of  all  this,  we  are  deeply 
persuaded;  there  is  no  fault  more  grave,  and  no  calamity  more  fatal, 
than  to  grieve  away  the  Holy  Spirit;  if  we  know  ourselves,  there  is 
no  crime  from  which  we  shrink  with  greater  dread ;  tell  us  how  we 
may  be  saved  from  an  offence  of  such  awful  magnitude.  The  de- 
mand is  reasonable,  for  doubtless  there  are  many  who  would  not  de- 
signedly do  despite  to  the  Spirit  of  Grace,  who  nevertheless,  in  their 
blindness,  pursue  a  course  which  leads  to  this  dreadful  issue.  It  is 
of  immense  concern  to  such,  to  know  the  principal  jvays  in  which 
this  may  inadvertently  be  done. 

I.  Many  grieve  the  Sjyirit  hy  their  unwiUingness  to  oicn  that  they 
are  under  His  influence  and  feel  Ills  i^wer. 

Those  who  are  called  to  deal  with  awakened  souls  are  aware 
how  studiously  these  religious  exercises  are  screened  from  the  view 
of  others.  Nor  have  we  the  right  to  complain  of  this,  so  far  as  it 
springs  from  that  natural  reserve  which  God  has  cast,  as  a  veii  of. 
concealment,  over  all  the  sacred  and  tender  affections  of  the  soul. 
It  is  never  easy  to  speak  out  the  sentiments  even  of  natural  affection 
into  the  ears  of  a  stranger;  and  we  speedily  lose  respect  for  those  who 
can  babble  forth  all  their  inner  feelings  in  the  shambles  and  in  the 
market  place,  which  should  be  reserved  for  self-communion,  or  at  least 
for  the  confidential  disclosures  of  intimate  friendship.  That  veil  of 
secrecy  should  not  be  rudely  drawn  aside  or  rent,  which  a  true  and 
instinctive  delicacy  draws  around  the  heart;  and  which,- as  a  princi-- 
ple  of  our  nature,  God  has  implanted,  that  we  may  be  protected  from 
the  profane  and  intrusive  gaze  of  our  fellow  men.  It  is  not  of.  this 
we  complain,  that  anxious  sinners  are  reluctant  to  make  us  the  de- 
positaries of  their  religious  secret.  However  we  may  regret  that 
want  of  confidence  which  renders  unavailing  our  wisdom  and  expe- 
rience, an  unquestioned  right  alone  is  exercised,  which  no  one  may 
lawfully  challenge.  But  the  indisposition  to  acknowledge,  even  to 
themselves,  the  source  and  nature  of  their  distress,  is  what  we  cen- 
sure. How  many  are  peevish  and  fretful  when  no  adequate  cause 
exists  without  them  for  this  disquietude,  who  would  discover,  if  they 
w6uld  institute  an  inquiry,  that  it  is  God  Himself  by  whom  they  are 
troubled.  He  has  "  stirred  up  their  nest,"  and  .therefore  they  are  ill 
at  ease  !  To  live  day  by«day  in  this  discomposure  of  soul,  and  never 
ask  wherefore  they  droop;  not  to  cease  the  din  and  clatter  of  life 
long  enough  to  ask  who  it  is  that  knockcth  at  the  door  of  the  heart, 


GRIEVING   THE   SPIRIT.  377 

and  seeks  admission — this  is  to  grieve  the  Spirit  of  God,  by  sad  in- 
attention to  the  signs  of  His  presence,  and  by  slothful  disregard  to 
the  calls  of  His  love.  An  earthly  friend,  however  dear,  would  turn 
away  from  our  door  at  such  rebuffs,  nor  could  he  be  pacified  without 
acknowledgment  and  sorrow  for  the  wrong.  Is  it  strange  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  should  suspend  His  importunate  solicitations,  and  leave 
the  sinner  that  is  deaf  to  all  his  entreaties  to  reap  the  fruit  of  his 
folly  in  bitter  disappointment  and  sorrow  ? 

II.  Others  grieve  the  Holy  GhoU  hij  laboring  to  extinguish  their  con- 
victions, and  escape  j^rcscnt  distress,  without  repentance  and  confession. 

Transparent  candor  is  due  to  all  earnest  searchers  after  truth — the 
same  candor  exhibited  by  our  blessed  Lord,  when  He  said,  "  Who; 
soever  will  not  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  Me,  cannot  be  3Iy  disci- 
ple." So  we  are  bound  to  say  to  all  who  would  press  into  His  King- 
dom, it  is  through  sorrow  and  pain  this  entrance  must  be  gained; 
for  the  gate  is  strait,  and  none  enter  but  through  striving.  The 
agonies  of  the  second  birth,  like  the  pains  of  the  first,  must  be  felt 
by  all  who  would  see  the  light.  It  is  impossible,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  that  a  man  should  wake  up  to  the  fact  that  he  is  vile  before 
God,  and  that  in  him  dwelleth  no  good  thing,  without  torture  of  soul. 
The  misfortune  and  guilt  of  multitudes  is,  that  they  will  not  undergo 
that  distress  which  is  antecedent  to  all  relief.  They  desire  to  be 
comforted,  without  the  mourning  to  which  the  promise  of  comfort  is 
annexed.  Hence  the  eff"ort,  at  every  hazard,  to  throw  off  the  sense 
of  pain.  Hence  the  lamentation  of  God,  ''  3Iy  people  hav.e  com- 
mitted two  evils :  they  have  forsaken  Me,  the  fountain  of  living 
waters,  and  hewed  them  out  cisterns,  broken  cisterns,  that  can  hold 
no  water."  In  the  very  crisis  of  their  fate,  instead  of  "  repenting 
in  dust  and  ashes  " — instead  of  **  being  in  bitterness  as  one  that  is 
in  bitterness  for  his  first  born  " — they  plunge  with  frantic  haste  into 
anything  that  will  for  the  time  hush  the  upbraidings  of  conscience, 
or  extract  the  sting  of  remorse.  They  addict  themselves  to  business, 
and  steep  themselves  in  care;  they  mingle  in  society,  and  drown  the 
voice  of  the  monitor  within  amid  scenes  of  pleasure;  they  lock  up  the 
heart  in  a  cold  and  stony  stoicism;  anything  but  listen  to  the  Spirit's 
reproof,  when  He  "convinces  of  sin,  of  righteousness,  and  of  judg- 
ment to  come."  "What  is  this  but  mad  resistance  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  by  which  all  His  blessed  influences  are  quenched,  perhaps 
forever  ? 


378  GRIEVINa   THE    SPIRIT. 

III.  Others  still  grieve  the  Spirit  hij  too  sedulous  cultivation  of  ihe 
emotions,  till  they  evaporate  in  mere  sentiment  and  feeling. 

The  universal  complaint  of  men,  when  pressed  with  the  duty  of 
faith  in  Christ,  is,  that  they  do  not  feel  enough.  Even  where  the  sad 
blunder  is  not  committed  of  supposing  this  mental  anguish  to  be  in 
some  sort  expiatory  and  atoning  for  the  past,  the  fatal  delusion  ex- 
ists, that  from  this  agony,  as  a  preparatory  discipline,  it  will  be  easier 
to  pass  into  the  peace  which  the  Saviour  gives.  Instead,  therefore, 
of  turning  at  once  to  Him  under  the  guidance  and  blessing  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  they  turn  back  upon  themselves,  and  press  the  law 
with  all  its  sharp  points  in  upon  the  conscience,  that  they  may  bleed 
at  every  pore.  To  their  utter  dismay,  they  come  by  this  process  at 
last  not  to  feci  at  all.  Yet,  no  one  acquainted  with  the  laws  of  our 
nature,  but  could  predict  the  result.  By  the  very  constitution  of 
the  human  soul,  these  emotions  are  not  to  be  produced  by  efforts  ex- 
pended directly  upon  the  emotions  themselves.  They  are  in- their 
nature  so  subtle  as  to  escape  in  the  very  act  of  handling;,  like  those 
volatile  essences  which  preserve  their  life  only  when  confined,  these 
emotions  evaporate  as  soon  as  they  are  drawn  forth  to  be  discussed 
and  strengthened.  What  living  man  ever  succeeded  in  producing 
the  sentiment  of  the  beautiful,  or  of  the  sublime,  by  putting  himself 
through  a  logical  process  to  show  that  he  ought  thus  to  feel?  The 
argument  shall  be  convincing;  but  the  heart  will  remain  as  insensible 
as  the  iceberg  under  a  polar  moon.  The  Scriptures,  with  a  far  more 
accur9.te  knowledge  of  man's  nature,  recognise  the  triple  powers  with 
which  he  is  endowed,  and  address  him  as  a  being  capable  of  thought, 
feeling,  and  action.  They  reveal  God  glorious  in  holiness,  and  man 
sunk  in  sin,  that  his  thoughts  may  be  stirred  within  him.  Inasmuch 
as,  by  the  relation  subsisting  between  these  faculties,  thought  tends 
to  elicit  feeling,  the  Holy.  Grhost  deepens  these  reflections  into  con- 
viction and  mourning.  But  He  does  not  now  draw  a  charmed  circle 
around  the  man,  or  throw  the  heart  back  upon  itself,  that  it  may  be 
lashed  into  frenzy.  The  Bible  nowhere  presents  a  graduated  scale 
of  feeling,  that  the  sinner  may  watch  and  wait  until  the  mercury 
rises  in  the  tube  to  the  boiling  point.  It  recognises,  on  the  contrary, 
the  great  principle  that  feeling  should  at  once  take  concrete  form, 
and  embody  itself  in  corresponding  action — and  that  emotion,  which 
is  not  allowed  thus  to  shape  itself  outwardly  in  the  appropriate  act, 
dies  within  itself.     It  comes  therefore  at  once  with  its  great  com- 


GRIEVING   THE    SPIRIT.  379 

Kiand  to  hellevc  in  that  Saviour  whom  it  reveals.  He  who  wishes  to 
feel  more  intensely  the  vileness  of  sin,  must  look  out  upon  that  holi- 
ness of  God  with  which  it  is  in  dreadful  contrast.  He  who  wishes  to 
feel  greater  contrition,  and  more  tender  sorrow,  must  look  forth  with 
a  trustful  faith  upon  that  Saviour  through  whom  alone  he  can  be 
brought  to  genuine  penitence.  All  these  acts  of  the  soul  reflect  back 
upon  each  other.  If  thought  engenders  feeling,  it  is  in  turn  quick- 
ened by  that  very  feeling  which  it  produces.  If  feeling  tends  to 
shape  itself  in  the  outward  act,  it  is  reciprocally  intensified  by  the 
very  energy  of  its  own  development.  It  is  precisely  here  the  sinner's 
great  error  is  committed.  Contradicting  all  the  known  laws  of  our 
spiritual  economy,  he  strives  to  deepen  his  emotions  by  a  direct  effort 
upon  them,  instead  of  yielding  prompt  obedience  to  the  great  prac- 
tical command  of  the  Gospel,  which  rouses  him  to  immediate  faith 
in  Christ,  and  which  the  Holy  Ghost  now  enforces  upon  the  con- 
science. "What  though,  within  the  magic  circle  in  which  he  has 
bound  his  heart  with  a  spell,  he  should,  contrary  to  known  expe- 
rience, burn  and  blaze  before  God  with  all  the  ardor  of  a  seraph  ! 
It  is  only  that  the  heart  may  be  consumed  in  the  intensity  of  its 
emotions,  to  fall  back  at  last  into  its  own  ashes,  a  charred  and  black- 
ened ruin !  And  what  is  this  but  a  mad  attempt  to  find  salvation 
within  ourselves,  to  create  a  Saviour  in  our  own  emotions!  What  is 
it  but  to  reject  and  grieve  that  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  who,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  very  laws  of  our  being,  would  lead  us  forth  from  our 
misery  and  guilt,  to  rest  upon  the  bosom  of  our  God  in  Christ ! 

IV.  Finally,  thousands  grieve  the  Sjnrii  hy  the  postponement  of 
present  duty  to  a  future  day. 

After  a  few  fitful  efforts,  the  sinner  sinks  down  in  sheer  ex- 
haustion, and  hopes  that  what  seems  impossible  to-day  will  be  prac- 
ticable and  easy  to-morrow.  Is  it  necessary  to  show  how  this  offends 
God  and  grieves  the  Holy  Ghost?  Is  it  nothing  to  trench  upon 
God's  prerogative,  who  alone  has  to-morrow  in  His  gift?  Put 
your  finger  upon  your  pulse,  and  remember  that  life  is  measured  out 
to  us  in  each  single  beat,  that  wc  may  feel  our  dependence  upon  the 
supreme  will  of  Him  in  whom  we  live  and  move.  Is  it  nothing  to 
trifle  with  God's  command,  which  covers  every  inch  of  our  time  with 
its  own  immediate  duty  ?  Is  it  nothing  to  mock  that  august  person 
who  knocks  at  the  sinner's  heart,  and  make  Him  bend  to  our  indo- 
lence or  caprice  ? 


380  .        GRIEVING   THE    SPIRIT. 

"  There's  no  ^jrerogative  in  human  hours. 

In  human  hearts  what  bolder  thought  can  rise, 

Than  man's  presumption  on  to-morrow's  dawn? 

Where  is  to-morrow  ?     In  another  world ! 

And  yet  on  this,  perhaps, 

This  peradventure,  infamous  for  lies. 

As  on  a  rock  of  adamant,  we  build 

Our  mountain  hopes,  and  spin  eternal  schemes, 

As  we  the  fatal  sisters  would  outspin, 

And,  big  with  life's  futurities,  expire." 

Every  command  of  God's  law  binds  the  present  moment,  and  every 
offer  of  the  Gospel  is  made  equally  in  the  present.  "Behold,  now 
is  the  accepted  time ;  behold,  now  is  the  day  of  salvation  ! "  He 
who  uses  up  his  morrow  in  fruitless  resolutions  of  amendment,  then, 
is  like  the  spendthrift  who  anticipates  his  income,  and  overwhelms 
his  fortune  with  the  debts  of  the  past. 

"A  man's  life  is  a  tower,  with  a  staircase  of  many  steps. 

That,  as  he  toileth  upwai'd,  crumble  successively  behind  him ; 

No  going  back,  the  past  is  an  abyss  ;  no  stopping,  for  the  present  perisheth  ; 

But  ever  hasting  on,  precarious  on  the  foothold  of  to-day. 

Our  cares  are  all  to-da^  ;  our  joj^s  are  all  to-day ; 

And  in  one  little  word,  our  life,  what  is  it  but — to-day  ?  " 

Sinner !  now  be  wise.  Reflect,  that  as  you  cannot,  without  fraud, ' 
anticipate  the  future  which  is  yet  with  God,  so  neither  can  you  recall 
the  past,  that  has  gone  beforehand  to  the  judgment  bar.  On  this 
isthmus  of  the  present  alone  you  stand,  with  the  momentous  interests 
of  eternity  crowded  with  you  upon  its  narrow  space.  This  now, 
which  is  "  ticking  from  the  clock  of  time,"  is  past,  even  as  you  have 
counted  it,  speeding  along  with  its  truthful  testimony  against  your 
neglect  and  sin,  if  now  you  grieve  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God. 


.il'j&'LnlL      ;J- 


~ 


•.^.••••»f>*'«.$i«*'».f.»»'»A***». 


CHRIST  ANT 


RLTJlVER  INSEPAR A B 1 .1 : 


ITuitr)T  if,  -with 


toil,  and  «eif-dcaial,  > 
of  Jesus,  the  same  j<  .-< . 
comforts,  and  cheers,  the 
ring.     If 


>)f  His  h: 


of  the  Lofi 


WkM^M* 


^^^2 
'T^'. 


Jesm  It«Uif» 
tkSaTiovM^ 


Happy  if,  lak 


Saviour  i:  : 


foil,  and  <ei^ 

of  J,. 

CODl!  ■ 

of::' 

tO;.- 

a./ 


Jesni,' 


CHRIST   AND    THE    BELIEVER   INSEPARABLE.  383 

The  Spirit  and  tlie  bride  say  come;  all  heaven  invites;  they  only 
shall  be  lost  who  -will  not  come  to  Christ.  Ye  who  disbelieve  His 
Word,  and  harden  yourselves  against  His  providence,  and  resist  His 
Spirit,  ye  are  that  barren  fig-tree.  But  for  the  pleadings  of  this 
loving  and  ever-living  Intercessor,  you  would  have  been  cut  down  as 
cumberers  of  the  ground.  His  loving  arm  stays  the  avenging  blow 
of  justice.  And,  in  deciding  for  or  against  Christ,  it  is  not,  whether 
you  choose  annihilation  or  heaven,  but  whether  you  prefer  heaven 
or  hell.  This  wonderful  love  work  of  the  Redeemer  has  secured 
life  to  all  who  died  in  Adam.  All  that  are  in  their  graves  shall 
come  forth,  some  to  the  resurrection  of  glory,  some  to  the  resurrec- 
tion of  damnation.  In  considering  the  love  of  Christ,  it  is  for  you 
to  decide  whether  you  will  be 

"  with  the  damned  cast  out,  or 

Numbered  with  the  blest." 

This  Christ's  love  to  me  as  a  sinner — that  is  the  ground  of  my 
hope,  and  source  of  my  peace,  and  love,  and  joy.  Bowed  down  be- 
neath a  load  of  sin,  I  rejoice  in  the  assurance  that  Christ  is  my  advo- 
catCj  and  that  His  blood  cleanseth  from  all  sin. 

"  This  precious  blood 
Shall  never  lose  its  power. 

Till  all  the  ransomed  church  of  God 
Be  saved  to  sin  no  more." 

To  illustrate  more  fully  the  depth  and  tenderness  of  this  insepara- 
ble love  of  Jesus,  let  us  look  at  some  of  the  relations  in  which  He 
presents  Himself  to  us  in  these  Scriptures,  which  we  should  search 
daily,  because  they  testify  of  Him. 

He  is  our  friend — calls  us  His  friends.  He  is  the  friend  that 
sticketh  closer  than  a  brother — the  friend  in  need — the  one  above 
all  others — the  friend  of  sinners — 

"  Which  of  all  our  friends,  to  save  us, 
Could  or  would  have  shed  his  blood." 

He  is  thy  tried  friend.  His  is  an  unchanging  love — faithful,  strong 
as  death.  He  is  thy  son,  thy  brother.  He  that  doeth  the  will  of  my 
Father,  the  same  is  my  mother  and  sister  and  brother.  His  is  a 
filial  heart — a  fraternal  love.  When  on  earth,  subject  to  His  parents, 
mark  how  He  cared  for  His  mother,  even  when  on  the  Cross — and 
His  love  is  still  as  great.  He  is  the  brother  born  for  adversity. 
And  what  more  beautifully  sets  forth  the  tender  love  of  Jesus  to 


384  CHRIST   AND   THE   BELIEVER  INSEPARABLE. 

His  followers,  than  that  oft  allusion  to  the  conjugal  relation.  In  the 
Old  Testament  and  in  the  New,  how  frequently  does  Jehovah-Jesus 
present  Himself  as  the  Bridegroom — the  Husband  of  the  church,  the 
Lamb's  wife;  the  husband  her  Redeemer,  that  she  might  be  presented 
without  spot  or  wrinkle,  as  a  chaste  virgin,  when  the  marriage  supper 
shall  be  celebrated,  amid  the  hallelujahs  that  fill  the  Fathers  house. 
What  relation  so  full  of  tenderness  and  confidence  and  permanence 
as  this  ?  True,  sin  in  ten  thousand  instances  makes  it  a  curse  ;  but 
sanctified  in  Christ,  as  fellow  heirs  of  the  grace  of  life,  the  Christian 
home,  even  in  this  sin-stricken  world,  presents  the  brightest  type  of 
heaven  that  earth  affords.  Jesus  thy  Redeemer  is  thine,  thy  hus- 
band. And  would  He  impress  yet  more  the  tender  faithfulness  of 
His  love — "  as  one  whom  his  mother  comforteth,  so  will  I  comfort 
you."  A  mother's  love  !  Poets,  with  all  their  rich  imagery,  have 
not  fathomed  it.  What  pictures  for  the  artist!  The  mother  watch- 
ing, praying,  by  the  bed  of  a  dying,  it  may  be  of  a  disobedient, -un- 
grateful child.  Poverty  and  peril,  by  flood  or  fire,  only,  test  the 
strength  of  a  mother's  love.  How  tender  your  yearning  heart, 
mother,  whether  aroused  by  the  sweet  prattle  of  innocency,  the  sighs 
of  pain,  or  shrieks  of  danger.  Even  a  mother  may  forget  her  infant, 
helpless  child,  but  Jehovah-Jesus  will  never  forget  thee. 

This  is  the  love  of  Christ  for  thee,  the  love,  as  the  apostle  calls  it, 
infinite  as  the  unsearchable,  boundless  nature  of  its  divine  author. 

It  is,  as  the  mind  of  the  inspired  Paul  reverts  to  the-  councils  of 
eternity,  when  earth  was  to  be  redeemed  by  blood,  and  no  sacrifice 
was  found  but  the  Lamb — as  he  contemplates,  amid  the  shouts  of 
angels,  the  incarnation  of  Deity— with  His  life  of  poverty  and  toil, 
terminated  by  the  scenes  of  the  garden'  and  Calvary — as  he  looks  at 
the  risen  and  interceding  Redeemer,  exalted  as  a  Prince  and  Saviour, 
to  give  repentance  and  remission  of  sins — Avith  love,  love,  love,  as 
its  beginning  and  end,  that  he  asks  in  triumph —  Who  shall  separate 
7(S  from  the  love  of  Christ?  I  see  the  apostle — as,  in  the  infancy 
of  the  church,  he  followed  the  Redeemer  at  the  cost  of  tribula- 
tion, and  distress,  and  persecution,  and  nakedness,  and  famine,  and 
pferil,  and  sword,  and  death,  daily — looking  away  from  these  things 
to  Christ,  as  his  wisdom,  and  righteousness,  and  strength,  and 
refuge;  and  am  prepared  for  the  triumph  of  faith,  as  he  challenges 
the  universe.  Christ's  love  is  his  anchor.  In  all  these  things  he 
is  more  than  conqueror,  through  Him  that  loved  him.      Neither 


CHRIST   AND   THE   BELIEVER   INSEPARABLE.  385 

death,  nor  life,  nor  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor  things 
present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other 
creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate  the  believer  from  the  love  of  God 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord. 

Many  of  these  things  were  then,  and  are  now,  incident  to  a  life 
of  devotion  in  the  service  of  the  Master.  By  reason  of  abounding 
iniquity,  the  love  of  many  a  professed  disciple  waxes  cold.  Abound- 
ing worldliness,  enticements  to  sin,  poverty,  bereavement,  disappoint- 
ment, affliction — these  are  the  means  which  God  uses,  at  once,  to  root 
up  the  plants  which  He  has  not  planted,  and  to  root  and  ground  the 
believer  in  the  love  of  Jesus.  The  faith  and  love  of  the  believer  are 
to  be  tried.  It  is  to  be  a  furnace  trial,  too,  and  woe  to  him  whos.e 
faith  stands  in  the  wisdom  of  men,  and  not  in  the  power  of  God — 
the  enmity  of  whose  heart  has  not  been  eradicated — who  has  not  the 
filial  spirit  of  obedience,  and  submission,  and  love.'  Only  he  that 
endures  to  the  end,  shall  be  saved.  The  precious  metal  is  put  into 
.  the  crucible,  not  to  destroy,  but  to  purify  it.  I  fear  not  for  the  true 
child  of  God  in  the  furnace,  for  the  Son  of  man,  the  blessed  Re- 
deemer, is  with  him  and  will  not  suflfer  him  to  be  destroyed.  He 
shall  only  be  purified  and  refined,  made  meet  for  the  Master's  ser- 
vice here,  and  fitted  for  the  incorruptible,  and  undefiled,  and  un- 
fading inheritance  there. 

These  things  may  pluck  up  the  tares,  may  change  your  earthly 
friends.  They,  like  the  friends  of  Job,  may  come  only  to  censure 
and  condemn,  but  they  cannot  separate  you  from  the  love  of  Christ. 
Ah !  is  it  not  in  need,  and  trial,  and  affliction,  and  bereavement, 
that  the  aff"ection  of  all  these  relations — friend,  son,  brother,  husband, 
mother — is  intensified  ?  In  all  the  sufferings  of  those  we  love,  do 
not  we  suffer  ?  Yea,  quietness  and  peace  may  fortify  the  heart  of  our 
suffering,  dying  friend,  but  are  not  our  hearts  lacerated  and  bleed- 
ing ?  That  would  not  be  a  true  friend,  a  filial  child,  a  faithful 
brother,  loyal  husband,  a  loving  mother,  whose  affection  any  trial 
could  diminish.  I  am  persuaded  that  we  have  an  High  Priest  who 
is  touched  with  the  feeling  of  our  infirmities — who  bears  our  sick- 
nesses and  sorrows,  as  well  as  our  sins — who  was  tried  in  all  points  as 
we  are — who,  for  love  of  us,  died,  and  nothing  shall  separate  us  from 
His  love. 

In  view  of  this  love,  is  not  his  condemnation  just,  who  will  not 
love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ — the  one  altogether  lovely  ? 
25 


336  CHRIST   AND   THE   BELIEVER   INSEPARABLE. 

Here  is  encouragement  for  God's  afflicted,  tempted  people.  Noth- 
ing shall  separate  them  from  the  love  of  Christ — the  Saviour  whom 
they  love  though  unseen.  Be  thou  faithful  unto  death,  and  He  will 
give  thee  the  crown  of  life. 

The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  he  with  you  all.    Amen. 


^^^^.^^ 


5 


iCi'    lH. 


^-     J 


fVf 


CONNECTED   WITH   THE   BIBLE.  389 

Avith  prayor.  A  whole  houscliold  collected  together,  children  ranged 
along  on  either  side  in  lessening  size,  and  your  father  reading  out  of 
that  volume  which  you  had  always  regarded  with  such  veneration. 
You  recall  the  day  when  some  strange  affliction  befell  your  household. 
You  could  not  comprehend  it.  You  knew  not  yet  what  was  meant 
by  death;  but  those  who  were  older  than  you  were  in  tears,  and  the 
family  were  gathered  together,  and  the  book  of  God  was  brought 
forth,  and  your  father  read  from  it,  as  well  as  he  might,  through 
falling  tears.  Soon  )^our  own  mind  began  to  catch  the  sounds  which 
were  uttered,  and  forthwith  to  weave  in  your  own  thoughts  with 
the  mystic  words  which  were  read.  You  remember  a  certain  sabbath 
night,  when  the  reading  was  going  on,  the  damp  wood  upon  the 
hearth  was  sighing  and  sizzling,  as  if  something  of  life  was  there, 
and  your  mind  was  started  off  to  unwind  the  meaning  of  those  awful 
words — ilie  "  worm  which  dieth  not,  and  the  fire  that  is  not 
quenched " — or  again,  when  you  looked  out  into  the  cold,  dark 
night,  and  you  thought  of  a  soul  shut  out  from  the  kingdom  of  God, 
with  all  its  brightness  and  warmth,  and  you  could  not  refrain  from 
tears;  for  you  felt  that  this  sacred  book  was  in  some  way  connected 
with  your  eternal  destiny.  Years  elapsed,  and  strange  changes  oc- 
curred— your  vcnenible  father  died — you  remember  that  during  hia 
last  illness  there  was  notliiug  which  he  so  much  desired  as  to  have  his 
children  read  to  him^  out  of  the  Bible;  and  among  his  latest  counsels 
was  this,  that  you  should  read  it  and  love  it.  He  sleeps  in  some  grave 
yard,  but  upon  the  stone  which  marks  the  spot,  there  is  graven  some 
verse,  out  of  that  volume,  which  was  his  solace  and  delight  when  living. 
You  liave  seen  your  mother,  in  widowhood,  resorting  to  the  same 
book  for  the  best  comfort  she  knew — and  when  her  eyes  were  too 
dim  to  read  anything  beside,  reading  this,  to  the  last,  as  something 
from  which  she  could  not  be  separated.  Follow  the  several  members 
of  your  household — one  dies  here,  and  another  there ;  but  the  last 
words  which  ever  they  uttered  may  have  been  of  such  a  character 
as  to  cast  new  importance  on  the  Bible.  It  may  be  that,  dying  in  its 
hopes,  they  made  use  of  some  of  its  joyful  promises;  or,  alas!  up- 
braided themselves  for  their  neglect  of  the  Word  of  God.  Look 
now  upon  it.  Is  it  the  same  to  you  as  any  other  book  ?  I  do  not 
ask  you  whether  you  have  full  foith,  after  personal  investigation,  in 
all  its  contents,  but  are  there  no  associations  with  its  very  exterior, 
which  have  an  amazing  power  over  you  ?     Are  not  these  designed, 


390  EXTERNAL  ASSOCIATIONS 

like  tlie  tendrils  of  the  vine,  to  attach  you  to  a  personal  belief  and 
living  understanding  of  the  inspired  contents  of  this  volume  ?  See 
what  a  power  there  was,  in  such  associations,  in  the  case  of  Bums, 
the  author  of  the  Cotter's  Saturday  Night,  in  the  midst  of  all  liis 
dissipation ;  and  you  may  as  well  untie  your  heartstrings,  and  un- 
weave your  whole  intellectual  and  social  life,  as  disregard  all  the 
memories  which  are  associated  with  the  book  of  God. 

Or  the  associations  of  which  I  speak  may  be  of  a  more  personal 
and  private  character,  even  with  the  individuals  wha  once  owned 
and  read  the  copy  which  is  now  in  your  possession.  Perhaps  it 
was  given  to  you  by  a  parent,  on  your  birthday,  or  at  New  Yearj 
or  on  the  day  when  you  were  leaving  home,  for  school,  or  for  the 
city.  It  contains  your  name,  and  it  may  be  some  expression  of  love, 
as  kind  as  an  angel  could  breathe,  in  the  handwriting  of  the  father 
or  the  mother  whose  love  for  you  was  next  in  strength  to  the  love 
of  your  God  and  Saviour.  You  remember  the  request  which  was 
made,  that  you  would  read  it — the  promise  that  you  should  never  be 
forgotten  in  affection  and  in  prayer;  and  your  regard  to  or  neglect  of 
that  request  you  have  felt  was  the  turning  point  of  your  destiny. 

Years  ago,  a  boy  entered  the  counting  room  of  an  eminent  mer- 
cliaut  in  this  city,  and  asked  for  employment.  He  was  told  that  no 
va^cancy  existed  at  the  time,  and  was  about  to  withdraw,  greatly  dis- 
appointed. Happening  to  mention  that  he  had  a  letter  of  commenda- 
tion from  Mr. ,  the  merchant  requested  to  see  it,  remarking  that 

he  had  the  greatest  regard  for  that  person.  The  boy  fell  upon 
Ids  knees,  to  unstrap  the  little  valise  which  he  carried  in  his  hand, 
to  find  the  letter.  .  Taking  out,  in  search  of  it,  one  and  another  of  the 
little  articles  which  maternal  love  had  neatly  provided  for  his  use  and, 
comfort,  a  small  volume  fell  out,  which  caught  the  eye  of  the  mer- 
chant, who  was  looking  on.  *'  What  is  this  ?  "  said  he.  Oh,  ''  that 
is  my  Bible,"  replied  the  boy.  "  And  do  you  read  it  ?  "  "  Always/' 
said  he,  in  artless  simplicity — "and  when  I  left  home,  I  promised  my 
mother  that  I  would  read  two  chapters  in  it  every  day."  The  men- 
tion of  his  mother,  the  thought  of  his  separation  from  her,  and  his 
own  disappointment,  brought  a  glistening  tear  to  the  boy's  eye,  which 
as  quickly,  by  untold  sympathy,  infected  the  stern  nature  of  the 
man  who  was  bending  over  him.  "Well,"  said  the  merchant,  "I  will 
take  you  into  my  employ."  And  never  from  that  time  did  he  have 
occasion  to  distrust  the  integrity  of  the  boy  whom  he  then  received, 


CONNECTED   WITH   THE   BIBLE.  391 

and  who  himself  then  began  a  career  which  ended  in  affluence  and 
honor.  Do  you  think  it  strange,  that  when  he  became  a  man,  he 
should  cherish  with  peculiar  regard  the  identical  volume  with  which 
was  associated  all  his  success  in  the  world  ? 

Or  the  copy  now  in  your  possession  was  once  the  property  of  some 
esteemed  friend,  who  has  now  gone  from  the  earth.  It  may  be  a 
memorial,  sent  to  you  from  his  sick  chamber,  with  some  kind  message, 
intended  to  turn  your  thoughts  to  its  more  frequent  perusal;  or,  ac- 
cidentally, as  we  say,  it  has  fallen  into  your  hand,  when  laid  aside 
by  him  who  needs  it  no  more.  Casting  your  eye  along  its  pages, 
you  perceive  that  many  of  its  verses  have  been  marked  by  its  former 
owner.  Forthwith  you  begin  to  imagine  what  must  have  been  the 
reflections  which  these  verses  excited,  at  the  time  they  were  thus 
designated  as  matters  of  special  interest.  The  eye  which  now  is 
closed  in  death  once  glanced  along  these  very  characters.  Here  is 
a  place  where  it  rested  with  a  special  attention ;  perhaps  a  tear  of 
penitence  fell  upon  this  very  page,  and  here  a  ray  of  joy  was  kin- 
dled in  the  eye  which  is  now  rayless  forever.  Here  are  promises 
which  were  of  great  comfort  during  a  long  illness  and  the  weariness 
of  a  sick  room.  It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  ask  whether  they  are 
illusion  or  truth;  the  fact  is,  they  were  regarded  as  substantial  truth 
by  the  individual  who  read  them,  and  were  an  actual  support  to  him 
in  life  and  in  death.  In  the  faith  of  these  he  died.  Do  they  not 
address  me,  therefore,  with  a  special  force  ?  Whither  has  the  spirit 
departed?  With  what  emotions  does  he  now  look  back  to  those 
very  thoughts  and  dispositions  which  were  nurtured  by  the  Bible  ? 
What  is  eternity  ?  What  is  death  ?  How  near  may  the  departed 
spirit  be  to  me,  the  moment  that  I  now  read  ?  I  look  upon  a  blind 
person,  and  perceive  that  by  the  loss  of  a  single  sense  he  is  shut  out 
from  all  perception  of  surrounding  objects  ;  or  a  deaf  person,  who  by 
the  loss  of  one  faculty  is  ever  after  insensible  to  the  sounds  so  dis- 
tinct to  all  others.  And  I  am  startled  to  think  how  near  the  reali- 
ties of  the  spiritual  world  may  be  to  me;  just  as  near  as  the  sights 
and  sounds  of  this  world  are  to  the  blind  and  deaf,  and  yet  I  do  not 
now  perceive  them,  for  want  of  the  proper  faculty.  But  shall  I  infer 
that  those  objects  do  not  exist,  and  that  other  beings  are  incapable 
of  perceiving  them,  and  holding  intercourse  with  them  ?  Is  there 
not  in  fact  an  intercourse,  through  memory,  and  through  love,  of  our 
souls,  with  the  departed  ?    We  know  that  it  would  have  given  them 


392  EXTERNAL   ASSOCIATIONS 

pleasure,  could  they  have  anticipated,  that  wheu  we  look  into  the  vol- 
ume which  was  once  theirs,  and  upon  the  passages  which  once  con- 
veyed special  instruction  to  them,  our  remembrance  of  them  would 
''■  infuse  a  more  touching  significance  "  into  these  very  words — thus 
''retaining  them,  though  invisibly,  and  without  their  actual  presence, 
in  the  exorcise  of  a  beneficent  influence."  *  Is  it  nothing  to  us,  when 
our  eye  rests  on  the  copy  of  the  Bible,  in  aid  of  its  eff"ectual  impression, 
that  memory  recalls  the  friend  with  whom  it  is  associated,  and  imagi- 
nation apprehends  him,  when  now,  under  a  mightier  manifestation  of 
truth,  as  still  animated  with  a  spirit  which  would,  if  that'were  consist- 
ent with  the  laws  of  the  higher  economy,  convey  to  me  yet  again  the 
same  testimony  and  injunctions?  Is  all  influential  relation  dissolved 
by  the  withdrawment  from  mutual  intercourse;  so  that  let  my  friends 
die,  and  I  am  as  loose  of  their  hold  upon  me  as  if  they  had  ceased 
to  exist,  or  never  had  existed  ?  The  supposition  is  inadmissible. 
The  voice  of  many  a  departed  friend  seems  to  address  us,  from  the 
very  exterior  of  the  Bible,  not  to  slight  the  truths  which  are  so 
sacredly  associated  with  their  memory. 

And  from  these  personal  recollections,  the  mind  glances  to  asso- 
ciations yet  more  general.  The  Imtory  of  the  Bible  is  associated 
with  every  mention  of  its  divine  claims.  It  has  not  been  monopolized 
by  a  few  individuals  or  families.  It  has  had  a  long  and  eventful' 
history.  No  book  has  been  so  often  translated,  into  so  many  lan- 
guages, and  of  none  have  so  many  impressions  been  made.  .  Its  home 
has  been  the  world.  It  has  been  domesticated  in  the  distant  East, 
and  travelled  on  the  wave  of  life  to  the  West.  What  untold  mill- 
ions of  the  human  race  have  seen  it,  and  handled  it,  and  been  more 
or  less  aff'ected  by  it.  We  cannot  divest  ourselves  of  the  remem- 
brance of  the  multitudes  who  have  believed  it.  What  we  have  seen 
it  accomplish  in  our  domestic  observation,  that  we  know  it  has  ac- 
complished in  the  case  of  millions  beside.  We  have  heard,  we  have 
read  of  thousands,  who  valued  it  beyond  gold,  who  lived  in  its  light, 
and  died  in  its  hope.  It  bears  with  it  the  testimony  of  ten  thousand 
times  ten  thousand.  Whenever  we  think  of  it,  we  think  of  the 
great  muster  roll  of  the  saints,  in  all  ages,  and  in  all  lands.  It  is 
pei'fumed  by  the  fragrance  of  their  piety.  It  is  illuminated  by  the 
glory  of  their  ascension.    I,t  is  borne  down  into  our  hands  along  with 

*  John  Foster. 


CONNECTED   WITH   THE    BIBLE.  393 

the  accumulated  memories  of  the  world,  and  associated  ■with  the  ex- 
perience of  the  multitudes,  -whom  no  man  can  number  in  heaven, 
whose  testimony  in  its  advocacy  is  as  the  sound  of  many  waters. 

The  very  sight  of  it  recalls  the  forms  of  those  who  were  reputed 
to  be  its  authors.  Never  before  did  such  a  conclave  of  worthies 
people  the  halls  of  our  imagination.  Never  did  such  sanctity  and 
awe  surround  the  legislators  and  heroes  of  the  world,  as  invest  the 
names  of  those  vrho  are  associated  with  the  authorship  of  the  Bible. 
Moses  is  before  us,  the  shepherd  amid  the  sublime  solitudes  of 
Horeb,  and  the  deliverer  of  a  nation  out  of  bondage;  admitted  to  an 
audience  with  God  on  the  curtained  top  of  Sinai,  the  leader  of  a  host 
in  march,  in  battle,  in  worship,  and  in  peace;  and  at  length,  dis- 
appearing from  human  view,  after  the  vision  from  the  summit  of 
Ncbo — uniting  in  his  person  the  qualities  of  legislator,  soldier,  his- 
torian, poet,  beyond  any  other  the  world  has  seen.  And  Samuel 
passes  along  in  the  train,  in  whose  ear  at  midnight,  when  yet  a  child, 
the  voice  of  God  was  heard,  startling  the  silence  of  the  night,  the 
stern  old  judge,  the  anointer  of  kings,  the  awe-struck  seer.  David 
follows  on,  now  a  stripling,  working  deliverance  for  his  country's 
armies,  from  the  host  of  the  Philistines,  challenging  a  mighty  giant 
to  mortal  combat,  and  bringing  back,  he  a  ruddy  boy,  the  huge  head 
of  the  fallen  foe;  now  a  king  in  Zion,  the  leader  of  the  worshippers 
in  those  jubilant  songs  which  filled  the  courts  of  the  temple,  and 
now  waking  the  echoes  of  the  night,  in  the  compos-ition  of  those 
odes  which  were  designed  to  be  universal  and  immortal.  And  his 
3'outhful  son  is  not  forgotten.  With  wisdom  when  a  youth  surpass- 
ing the  oldest  sage,  enthroned  amid  wealth  and  glory  such  as  im- 
agination never  had  conceived,  recording  in  sententious  form  that 
knowledge  which  his  own  experience  had  discovered.  And  Isaiah, 
and  Jeremy,  and  Daniel,  and  all  the  choir  of  the  prophets — robed  in 
mystery,  yet  luminous  with  awful  sanctity — uttering  the  deep  things 
of  God,  and  from  the  high  places,  to  which  they  were  led,  announcing 
to  the  world  beneath  the  events  of  future  and  distant  ages.  Theu 
there  breaks  upon  our  view  the  company  of  the  apostles,  the  reputed 
authors  of  the  later  poi'tions  of  the  book.  We  stop  not  to  decide,  or 
even  to  inquire,  whether  indeed  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
to  write  what  was  ascribed  to  their  authorship,  for  our  minds  are 
filled  with  the  remembrance  of  their  tragic  deaths,  as  gathered  from 
history,  which  imparts  a  sort  of  fascination  to  the  words  which  are  said 


394  EXTERNAL   ASSOCIATIONS 

to  have  proceeded  from  their  pens.  Matthew  suifering  martyrdom 
in  Ethiopia — Mark  iu  Egypt — John  exiled  by  Domitian — James 
precipitated  fi*om  the  temple  at  Jerusalem — Peter  requesting  to  be 
crucified  with  his  head  downwards — and  Paul  beheaded  in  Nero's 
reign  at  Rome,  flinching  not  from  danger,  doing  all  things,  daring 
all  things,  and  giving  the  best  and  mightiest  confirmation  of  what 
they  wrote,  by  a  cheerful  martyrdom.  All  these  associations  are  in 
advance  of  any  scrutiny  of  their  several  arguments,  and  surround  the 
Scriptures  themselves  with  a  power  of  impression  from  which  it  is 
difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  divest  ourselves. 

Then  there  sweeps  before  our  vision  the  great  army  of  the  mar- 
tyrs, whose  attachment  to  this  book  was  stronger  than  the  love  cf  life. 
It  was  with  them  in  the  cells  where  they  were  imprisoned.  They 
carried  it  in  their  bosoms,  and  next  to  their  hearts,  when  on  their 
way  to  the  scaffold.  It  kindled  up  that  strange  gladness  which  out- 
shone the  flames  which  consumed  them,  and  inspired  them  with  that 
heroism  which  incites  and  captivates  us  without  our  choice.  Nor  can 
we  forget  the  efforts  which  have  been  made  to  exterminate  this  book 
from  the  earth.  Kings  have  leagued  together  to  destroy  it.  They 
have  ransacked  the  dwellings  of  those  who  had  been  suspected  of 
possessing  it.  The  world  has  been  convulsed  with  wars  and  battles 
over  and  around  this  single  volume.  But,  lo !  it  has  emerged  from 
them  all,  like  a  veteran  unscarred  from  a  thousand  fields,  and  laden 
with  the  spoils  of  its  bloodless  victories.  What  conquests  has  it  won, 
over  those  who  have  ridiculed,  and  argued,  and  despised,  and  hated, 
and  attacked  it.  Men  of  all  climes  have  been  proud  to  do  it  hom- 
age. The  Littletons  and  the  Rochcstcrs,  who  once  made  it  the 
theme  of  profane  wit,  came  at  length  to  receive  it  with  faith  and 
eladness.  What  testimonies,  to  its  truth  were  extorted  from  the 
Rousseaus  and  Yoltaires,  whose  life-long  opposition  had  left  it  un- 
harmed. Calm  and  uninjured,  it  emerges  from  the  floods  which 
have  swept  over  it,  the  fires  which  have  been  kindled  upon  it,  and 
the  blood  which  has  flowed  around  it,  and  passes  into  our  hands, 
with  all  these  glorious  recollections  of  its  history,    ' 

"  The  milk-white  hind,  immortal  and  unchanged." 

Then,  again,  we  remember  that  it  is  associated  with  the  best  minds 
and  with  the  best  men  c>f  whom  our  species  can  boast.  The  golden- 
mouthed  Chrysostom  preached  from  it  at  Antioch  and  Constantino- 
ple ;  so  did  Ambrose  at  Milan ;  Gregory  Nazianzen ;  and  Jerome,  at 


CONNECTED    WlXn   THE   BIBLE.  395 

•  Rome.  The  eloquence  of  Massillon  was  inspired  by  it,  and  the  sub- 
lime genius  of  Pascal  fed  upon  it.  It  is  the  very  book  out  of  which 
the  daughters  of  Milton  read  to  the  blind  old  prophet,  and  by  whose 
inspiration  he  was  borne  up, 

"Above  the  Aonian  Slount," 

"  to  the  height  of  his  great  argument." 

It  was  with  Euuyan  in  jail  at  Bedford,  and  suggested  and  informed 
that  wonderful  allegory  which  for  its  inventive  genius  will  ever  be 
held  the  second  uninspired  book  in  our  language.  It  was  the  very 
book  which  Newton  studied  more  than  he  studied  those  other  Scrip- 
tures, the  stars  of  heaven ;  which  Bacon  and  Boyle  and  Locke  be- 
lieved with  unfaltering  faith.  Raphael  and  Guido  and  Rubens  drew 
from  it  the  inspiration  of  their  art.  The  ripest  scholars  of  the  world 
have  passed  their  lives  in  unfolding  its  import.  It  was  eulogized  by 
Sir  William  Jones,  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  and  Sir  Samuel  Romilly. 
The  gravest  judges,  the  wisest  legislators,  have  honored  it,  and  it 
spreads  itself  out,  and  rolls  down,  like  another  Pactolus,  with  its 
sands  of  gold,  through  all  forms  and  departments  of  literature,  in- 
forming our  language,  tinging  our  books,  and  leaving  its  impression 
on  everything  which  it  touches. 

Nor  can  we  forget  that  this  very  volume,  whatever  are  its  contents 
and  its  claims,  is  historically  related  to  all  the  great  movements  and 
reforms  of  the  world,  especially  with  all  the  advances  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty.  It  is  the  good  old  book  which  WicklifFe  studied 
in  the  cloisters  of  Morton  College ;  out  of  which  John  Huss 
preached  so  eloquently  in  Bethlehem  chapel,  at  Prague.  It  is  the 
book  which  was  the  sole  armory  of  Luther,  and  with  which,  like 
a  lever,  he  pried  up  fifty  millions  of  people  to  liberty  of  thought 
and  life.  The  very  same  which  Calvin  and  Beza  and  Melancthon, 
and  their  accomplished  coadjutors  in  France  and  SAvitzerland, 
employed  in  the  revival  of  letters  and  the  reformation  of  religion. 
It  was  this  from  which  John  Knox  thundered  out  his  denunciations 
of  despotism,  from  the  windows  of  the  Canongate.  This  is  asso- 
ciated with  the  martyrdom  of  Cranmer  and  Ridley,  at  Oxford.  It 
is  this  very  book,  a  part  of  which  Alfred  the  Groat  translated 
into  the  English  tongue,  and  in  which  he  found  the  seeds  of  all 
good  and  wise  culture — the  book  from  which  patriotism  and  lib- 
erty have  drawn  all  their  inspiration.  Here  was  it  that  Algernon 
Sidney  found  his  best  arguments  in  defence  of  what  he  called  on  the 


i3y(3  EXTERNAL   ASSOCIATIONS 

scaffold,  "  the  good  old  cause."  It  lay  beneath  the  head  of  Argyle, 
when  sleeping  in  his  cell  the  sweet  sleep  of  infancy,  within  an  hour 
of  his  execution.  It  was  quilted  into  the  doublet  of  John  Hampden, 
and  saturated  with  his  blood,  when,  throwing  his  arms  around  the 
neck  of  his  faithful  horse,  he  was  borne  from  the  battle-field  to  die. 
"  Sire,"  said  Lady  Kachel  Russell  to  Charles  II,  ''  I  shall  never  for- 
give myself  for  having  knelt  to  your  Majesty.  My  noble  husband  is 
too  good  a  man  to  live  in  your  Majesty's  domains.  I  will  hasten  to 
the  tower  and  prepare  him  for  the  kingdom  of  God;"  and  this  was 
the  book  out  of  which  that  heroic  woman  read  to  her  husband,  the 
night  before  he  was  beheaded.  It  was  out  of  this  that  Cromwell 
read  aloud,  at  the  head  of  his  troops,  before  the  battle  of  Naseby. 
It  came  over  in  the  Mayflower.  The  first  compact  of  constitutional 
liberty  in  that  ship  was  written  upon  its  cover.  It  had  a  place  in 
every  cabin  which  our  fathers  reared  in  the  wilderness.  The  soldiers 
of  the  revolution  carried  it  in  their  knapsacks.  The  First  -Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  took  measures  to  increase  its  circulation. 
It  was  the  book  on  which  Washington  laid  his  honest  hand  when 
taking  his  solemn  oath  of  office.  It  lies  in  every  court  of  justice,  to 
secure  the  sanctity  of  oaths;  and  to-day,  a  whole  nation  is  instructed 
in  its  precepts. 

And  all  these  associations  are  connected  with  the  mere  exterior  of  . 
the  Bible.  They  are  distinct  from  all  faith  in  the  origin  and  authority 
of  its  contents.  They  are  the  light  which  flickers  about  the  very 
covers  of  this  wonderful  book — a  light  like  the  luminous  atmosphere 
which,  according  to  mythology,  encircles  whatever  is  celestial.  And 
you  will  observe  that  the  associations  of  which  I  have  spoken  are  not 
superstitions  or  prejudices,  but  the  offspring  of  historical  realities. 
They  are  the  shadows  of  actual  facts;  and  though  they  are  external 
and  incidental,  yet  are  they  as  real  to  us  as  any  matters  which  belong 
to  our  existence.  The  Bible  is  not  to  us  the  same  as  any  other  book. 
There  is  no  other  book  with  which  are  connected  such  memories  and 
such  varied  associations.  Say  that  these  associations  do  not  amount 
to  a  demonstration  of  the  truth  of  the  Bible.  We  admit  it,  but  they 
exist;  there  is  power  in  them.  They  enter  into  the  very  structure 
of  our  minds  and  hearts.  We  cannot  divest  ourselves  of  them.  They 
were  designed  to  aid  the  impression  of  all  which  the  Bible  contains. 
They  are  prepossessions  in  favor  of  its  authority.  They  are  feelings 
which  prepare  us  to  listen  to  its  oracular  voices. 


CONNECTED   WITH    THE   BIBLE.  397 

Much  has  been  written,  in  our  days,  as  to  the  desirableness  of  a  ncio 
translation'  of  the  Scriptures.  After  all  which  has  been  said  of  the 
changes  of  words,  after  all  admissions  as  to  the  result  of  severe  crit- 
icisms, we  confess  ourselves  impatient  of  all  proposals  fur  what  may 
be  called  a  new  version  of  the  Bible.  We  like  not  this  moderuiziug 
of  what  is  ancient — this  association  of  the  new  with  what  is  old  and 
venerable,  and  which,  in  these  our  times,  cannot  be  changed  without 
disturbing  the  landmarks  of  centuries,  the  very  standard  and  anchor- 
age of  our  language.  We  should  as  soon  think  of  changing  the  por- 
traits of  our  ancestors,  putting  them  into  a  modern  dress,  or  cutting 
down  the  old  oaks  about  the  homestead,  and  substituting  poplars  and 
willows.  And  we  trust,  for  reasons  not  at  all  allied  to  superstition 
or  defective  scholarship,  that  the  light  of  the  last  day  may  shine 
on  the  very  book  which  to-day,  wherever  the  English  tongue  is 
spoken,  reflects  the  light  of  God,  in  our  homes  and  in  our  churches. 

And  now,  with  minds  crowded  with  these  lively  and  afi"ectionate 
memories — these  manifold  associations  by  which  the  Bible  connects 
itself  with  our  personal  history,  and  with  everything  good,  and  great, 
and  hopeful,  in  the  history  of  the  world — we  open  its  pages,  and 
examine  its  contents ;  and  here  we  find  the  secret  of  all  that  power 
which  is  inseparable  from  the  sacred  volume.  It  is  the  Word  of 
God.  It  is  a  gift  of  light  from  the  glory  of  the  throne,  to  guide  the 
lost,  and  relieve  the  perplexities  of  the  human  soul.  It  contains  the 
legislation  of  the  Most  High  for  the  universe.  It  pronjulgates  a  law, 
addressed  to  the  heart  of  every  man.  It  reveals  the  only  way  in 
which  apostate  men  maybe  reclaimed,  the  life  of  God  in  their  souls  be 
rekindled,  and,  conscious  of  guilt  as  they  are,  may  be  saved.  Pro- 
ceeding from  God,  it  is  truth ;  and  herein  lies  its  essential  power — 
its  unmixed  and  everlasting  truth.  The  Avords  which  God  has 
spoken  are  spirit  and  life.  As  a  fire  and  as  a  hammer  are  they,  to 
break  the  rock  in  pieces.  There  is  no  power  like  that  which  divine 
truth  is  capable  of  exerting  on  the  mind  and  heart  of  man.  The 
great  forces  of  nature,  fire  and  frost,  lightning  and  earthquake,  are 
but  analogies  to  illustrate  that  greater  power  which  the  Word  of 
God  has  exerted,  and  will  exert,  upon  the  human  soul.  Enforced 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  it  becomes  the  exceeding  greatness  of  God's 
power.  It  accomplishes  an  entire  conversion  in  the  interior  dispo- 
sitions of  the  individual  man,  according  to  the  working  of  the  mighty 
power  of  God,  which  He  wrought  in  Christ  when  He  raised  Him 


398  EXTERNAL  ASSOCIATION^ 

from  the  dead.  And  the  change  -which  it  works  in  the  individual 
is  the  pledge  and  promise  of  the  changes  it  will  work  in  the  world. 
There  is  no  abuse  which  can  outlive  its  power — no  mountains  of  ice 
that  can  stand  before  its  heat.  It  is  the  wisdom  of  God,  and  the 
power  of  God,  unto  salvation.  Slowly  and  gradually,  it  may  make 
its  way  in  time  to  come,  as  in  time  past.  But  the  spirit  of  God  is 
in  the  wheels.  There  is  no  going  back  to  the  sun  and  the  seasons. 
The  year  is  brought  about,  and  the  harvests  will  be  ripened  and 
gathered.  The  roots  of  the  great  tree,  in  which  the  fowls  of  heaven 
build  their  nests  and  sing,  strike  deeper,  and  spread  themselves  out 
wider,  feeling  about  the  foundations  of  vast  evils,  working  into  every 
little  crevice,  and  growing  slowly  and  silently,  loosening  the  founda- 
tion stones,  and  overturning  them  at  last,  as  by  the  secret  power  of 
God.  Nor  is  there  one  good  to  be  desired  for  man,  whether  for  this 
life  or  the  life  to  come,  which  follows  not  in  the  train  of  that  book, 
which  contains  the  wisdom,  the  truth,  and  the  love,  of  God. 

Two  things,  therefore,  primarily  should  engage  our  attention. 
First  of  all,  receive  the  Word  of  God  yourself,  in  a  manner  be- 
coming its  authorship — not  as  the  word  of  man,  but  as  it  is,  in  truth, 
the  Word  of  God,  which  liveth  and  abideth  forever.  Disregard  not 
those  memories  which  have  been  graven  into  your  heart,  and  break 
not  away  from  those  unnumbered  associations  by  which  the  God'of . 
'the  Bible  would  draw  you  to  a  personal  faith  in  its  inspired  contents. 
Think  how  those  recollections  will  haunt  you,  exasperating  the 
stings  of  remorse,  if  you  should  despise  what  God  has. written,  and, 
with  the  light  so  clear,  and  the  voice  of  God  so  distinct,  you  should 
perish  through  neglect  of  that  which  was  designed  to  save  you. 
Honor  the  Word  of  God.  Love  it.  Believe  it.  Search  it.  Bind 
it  to  your  heart.  Let  it  dwell  in  you  richly  in  all  wisdom.  Live  by 
its  light,  and  let  your  head  be  pillowed  upon  its  supports  when  you 
are  called  to  die. 

What  is  of  value  to  you,  impart  to  others.  Shoio  your  value  of  the 
Bible  by  your  disposition  to  distribute  it.  Flame  is  not  extinguished 
by  kindling  another.  Who  can  frame  an  objection  to  the  universal 
circulation  of  the  Word  of  God  ?  It  is  the  cheapest,  surest,  and  most 
compendious  mode  of  accomplishing  every  good,  and  remedying  every 
evil,  which  ever  came  within  the  desires  or  notice  of  philanthropy  and 
piety.  It  is  the  inspiration  of  liberty,  the  fountain  of  knowledge,  the 
stability  of  justice,  the  cement  of  society,  the  reform  of  mischief,  the 


CONNECTED   "WITH   THE   BIBLE.  399 

impulse  to  progress,  the  restraint  from  excess,  the  focus  of  all  light 
and  love,  the  solution  of  doubt,  the  remedy  for  sin,  the  source  of 
hope,  the  security  of  the  soul,  and  the  written  charter  of  heavenly 
citizenship.  Give  it,  then,  to  all  who  will  receive  it ;  and  when  the 
history  of  life  shall  be  unwound,  in  the  day  of  Revelation,  it  may  be 
disclosed  what  the  book  which  goes  forth  as  your  gift  shall  accom- 
plish in  the  world.  Perhaps  it  goes  into  some  school-house  in  a 
distant  settlement,  and  there  trains  a  group  of  children  in  their  no- 
bility and  duty  as  citizens.  Perhaps  it  goes  into  some  prison,  and 
there  inspires  the  last  hope  that  God  does  not  forsake  even  the  most 
guilty ;  or  to  some  alms-house,  to  comfort  some  sick  and  aged  victim 
of  want  with  the  thought  of  his  father's  house,  with  bread  enough 
and  to  spare;  or  to  the  forecastle  of  some  ship,  to  preach  to  the  mar- 
iner amid  the  solitude  of  the  seas ;  or  into  the  hands  of  the  immi- 
grant— the  first  gift  which  Christian  freedom  dispenses,  at  the  enter- 
ing in  of  the  gates;  or  it  crosses  the  ocean,  and,  within  a  few  weeks, 
the  missionary  will  distribute  its  varied  translations  in  Constantino- 
ple, in  Ceylon,  in  Canton,  in  Africa,  and  in  all  the  islands  of  the 
sea.  And  long  after  you  are  dead,  immortal  minds  will  be  weaving 
around  this  very  volume  those  memories  and  associations  which  now 
encircle  your  own  Bible,  investing  them  with  sanctity,  with  love,  and 
with  power — minds  which,  sanctified  by  truth  and  saved  by  grace, 
you  will  meet  hereafter;  amid  the  glories  of  your  Father's  Eangdora. 


vM//^  ^d^rr/A 


.ff.«***».9.**'< 


^JtTMibi^U'J^tJ .  'k. 


convci 


,1;-)  !-(;:^;'-i;>'.ij  y;ir!ii^ ':-.;  ^  aro  -il!. 


EEPlJir 


cor 
tii.. 
ttr 
a:, ' 
h  ' 


niS  SOUL  INTO  THE  HANDS  OF  THE  REDEEMER.  403 

"When  the  siuner  deposits  his  immortal  soul  into  the  hands  of  the 
Redeemer,  he  must  entertain  a  proper  estimate  of  its  nature  and 
value.  This  is  our  immaterial  and  immortal  nature  endowed  with 
the  high  capacity  of  knowing,  loving,  serving,  and  enjoying  God. 
This  is  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  man,  that  he  was  made 
in  the  image  of  God,  in  knowledge,  righteousness,  and  true  holiness. 
Though  sin  has  defaced  this  image,  and  despoiled  man  of  spiritual 
life  and  moral  beauty,  and  impaired  his  intellectual  vigor,  still  he 
retains  the  remains  of  his  former  grandeur,  like  a  palace  in  ruins. 
There  is  no  thought  so  strongly  impressive  and  afifecting,  as  that,  in 
its  endless  existence,  it  is  the  heir  of  endless  happiness  or  misery. 
"  What  is  a  man  profited  if  he  gain  the  whole  world,  and  lose  his 
own  soul  ?  or  what  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul  ? " 
"  The  redemption  of  the  soiil  is  precious,  and  it  ceaseth  forever." 
Yet  how  thoughtless  a.nd  regardless  are  the  great  mass  of  mankind 
as  to  their  souls,  the  relations  they  sustain  to  God,  and  the  results  of 
death  and  opening  eternity.  "  They  are  of  the  earth,  earthy."  They 
look  to  things  seen  and  temporal,  and  walk  in  the  light  of  their  own 
eyes,  and  after  the  desires  of  their  own  heart."  Remaining  in  this 
state,  they  feel  no  need  of  deliverance  from  the  power  and  effects  of 
sin,  and  will  make  light  of^  and  neglect,  and  refuse,  the  purchased 
and  proffered  salvation  of  the  Redeemer.  "  They  that  are  whole 
need  not  a  physician,  but  they  that  are  sick." 

Hence  the  sinner,  in  coming  to  Christ,  and  committing  his  soul 
into  His  hands,  must  exercise  that  "  godly  sorrow  which  works  re- 
pentance unto  salvation,  not  to  be  repented  of."  This  is  not  that 
"  sorrow  of  the  world  which  worketh  death,"  in  the  mere  remorse  of 
conscience  under  the  terrors  of  the  law,  in  the  fear  of  deserved 
wrath,  or  the  distress  generated  by  the  disappointments  and  trials  of 
life.  But  it  is  a  sorrow  produced  by  the  renewed  principle  of  love 
planted  in  the  soul  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  exercised  in  the 
light  of  divine  truth,  strictly  applied.  The  law  of  God,  which  he 
approves  as  "  holy,  just,  and  good,  which  was  ordained  to  life,  he 
finds  to  be  unto  death."  By  the  law,  he  gains  the  knowledge  of 
sin.  He  becomes  deeply  and  thoroughly  convinced  of  the  guilt  and 
pollution  of  sin,  which  reigns  within  and  over  him.  He  experiences 
that  it  is  an  evil  as  well  as  bitter  thing,  that  he  has  forsaken  the  foun- 
tain of  living  water,  and  "  hewn  out  to  himself  broken  cisterns  that 
can  hold  no  water."     He  realizes  his  desert,  and  apprehends  the 


404        THE  christian's  confidence  in  committing 

peril  of  his  inheritance  of  everlasting  woe.  It  is  not  so  much  to  the 
outward  acts  and  eiFects  of  sin  that  his  mind  is  exercised,  and  his 
heart  impressed,  as  to  the  inward  motives,  principles,  and  aifeetions, 
of  his  soul,  and  he  traces  all  the  streams  to  the  fountain  within.  It 
is  in  reference  to  the  God  of  infinite  holiness  and  goodness,  as  well 
as  majesty,  and  in  view  of  His  holy  and  perfect  law,  the  fulfilment 
of  which  is  love,  and  also  of  all  the  relations  He  sustains  to  us,  and 
the  claims  He  holds  over  us,  that  true  conviction  and  penitence  are 
induced  and  exercised.  Thus  the  psalmist,  in  the  penitential  fifty- 
first  psalm,  confesses,  "Against  Thee,  Thee  only^  have  I  sinned,  and 
done  this  evil  in  Thy  sight,  that  Thou  mightest  he  justified  tohen  Thou 
speakest,  and  clear  when  Thoujudgest."  With  this  confession  are 
united  two  prayers,  distinctly  referring  to  the  two  great  blessings 
comprised  in  the  sinner's  salvation,  as  exhibited  in  the  Gospel,  justi- 
fication and  sanctification.  "  Wash  me  thoroughly  from  my  iniqui- 
ty, and  cleanse  me  from  my  sin."  "  Create  within  me  a  clean 
heart,  and  renew  a  right  spirit."  Under  these  convictions,  the  sin- 
ner earnestly  institutes  the  inquiry,  *'  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  " 
He  finds  in  himself  neither  righteousness  nor  strength.  He  can 
present  before  God  nothing  but  guilt  and  spiritual  helplessness. 
Paul  relates  his  own  experience  in  the  seventh  chapter  of  his  Epis- 
tle to  the  Romans:  " Iwas  alive  loithout  the  law  once,  hut  when  the 
commandment  came,  sin  revived,  and  I  died."  Ignorant  of  the  spir- 
ituality and  strictness  of  the  law  of  God,  he  was  alive  in  the  pride 
of  his  self-righteousness  and  his  presumed  safety.  But  when  the 
commandment  (which  says,  "  thou  shalt  not  covet ")  came,  sin  re- 
vived. The  law  of  God,  searching  and  trying  his  inward  spirit,  and 
discovering  his  secret  thoughts,  motives,  and  affections,  as  the  springs 
of  action,  and  shedding  light  upon  the  retrospect  of  the  past,  slew 
the  pride  of  his  fallen  nature.  ''  Sin  revived ;  "  he  saw  and  felt  the 
working  of  it  within  his  soul,  and  traced  the  fruits  of  it  in  his  life. 
He  then  died  as  to  his  legal  hopes  and  self-confidence,  and  became 
an  humble  and  fervent  suppliant  for  pardoning  mercy  and  saving 
grace.  Men,  in  their  natural  state,  are  characterized  as  "  being 
ignorant  of  God's  righteousness,  and,  going  about  to  establish  their 
own  righteousness,  they  have  not  submitted  themselves  to  the  right- 
eousness of  God."  But  ^hen  the  light  of  divine  truth  enters  the 
soul,  and  the  Word,  quick  and  powerful,  becomes  a  discerner  of  the 
thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart,  the  selfish  ease  and  confidence  of 


HIS  SOUL  INTO  THE  HANDS  OF  THE  REDEEMER.  405 

the  sinner  departs,  his  legal  confidence  gives  way,  and,  instead  of 
taking  the  attitude  and  indulging  in  the  boasting  of  the  Pharisee, 
he,  like  the  publican,  with  downcast  eye  and  deeply-sorrowful  spirit, 
utters,  in  the  fullness  of  his  soul,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner." 
Under  deep  conviction  of  sin,  the  sinner  is  often  long  embarrassed 
with  vain  endeavors,  in  some  form  and  manner  of  self-righteousness, 
to  prepare  himself  for  the  reception  of  mercy.  He  finds  himself  in- 
sidiously betrayed  into  legal  strivings,  which  prevent  him  from  a  ready 
and  cordial  acceptance  of  the  free  and  unrestricted  offers  and  invi- 
tations of  the  Gospel.  A  strong  sense  of  guilt  and  of  depravity  and 
spiritual  impotence  for  a  time  keep  back  from  the  Saviour,  instead 
of  leading  at  once  to  Him,  as  "  able  to  save  unto  the  uttermost."  At 
last,  forsaking  every  other  refuge,  and  renouncing  all  attempts  at 
preparing  himself  by  any  labor  or  exercise  of  his  own  to  obtain  the 
favor  of  God  through  Christ,  he  accepts  the  free  gift. of  God,  "with- 
out money  and  without  price ;  "  and  in  that  acceptance  he  makes  an 
entire  surrender  of  himself,  to  be  made  "  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."     He  cordially  adopts  the  sentiment — 

"  Should  my  tears  forever  flow, 
Should  my  zeal  no  languor  know, 
This  for  sin  could  not  atone ; 
Thou  must  save,  and  Thou  alone. 
In  my  hand  no  price  I  bring; 
Simply  to  Thy  Cross  I  cling." 

Now  he  looks  to  the  Lamb  of  God,  that  takes  away  the  sin  of  the 
world,  and  finds  "  peace  in  believing." 

"  A  guilty,  weak,  and  helpless  worm, 

On  Thy  kind  arms  I  fall ; 
Be  Thou  my  strength  and  righteousness, 

My  Jesus  and  my  all." 

In  committing  the  soul  into  the  hands  of  the  Redeemer,  there  is  a 
believing  contemplation  and  reliance  on  the  Saviour,  in  view  of  his 
designation  in  the  everlasting  covenant  of  peace  to  accomplish  the 
work  of  redemption,  as  the  Mediator  and  surety  of  His  people,  of 
His  personal  and  ofl5cial  qualifications,  as  "  Immanuel,  God  with  us," 
of  the  ofl&ces  which  He  executes,  the  relations  in  which  He  stands 
to  sinners,  and  of  the  free  invitation  and  exceeding  great  and  pre- 
cious promises  recorded  in  His  Word.     There  is  a  passage  in  the 


406        THE  christian's  confidence  in  committing 

forty-fifth  chapter  of  Isaiah,  to  which  Paul  has  reference  in  the 
second  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Philippians,  which  is  beautifully 
expressive  on  this  point :  "  Look  unto  me,  and  be  ye  saved,  all  the 
ends  of  the  earth;  for  I  am  God,  and  there  is  none  else.  I  have 
sworn  by  Myself,  the  word  is  gone  forth  in  righteousness,  and  shall 
not  return,  that  unto  Me  every  knee  shall  bow,  and  every  tongue 
shall  swear.  Surely,  shall  one  say,  in  the  Lord  have  I  righteousness 
and  strength;  even  to  him  shall  men  come,  and  all  that  are  incensed 
against  them  shall  be  ashamed.  In  the  Lord  shall  all  the  seed  of 
Israel  be  justified,  and  shall  glory."  How  luminous,  instructive, 
and  attractive,  in  the  light  of  the  Gospel,  are  the  invitations  and 
promises  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifty-fifth  chapter  of  the  same 
prophet  Isaiah  :  "  Ho,  every  one  that  thirsteth,  come  ye  to  the 
waters,  and  he  that  hath  no  money,  come  ye,  buy,  and  eat;  yea, 
come,  buy  wine  and  milk  without  money  and  without  price.  Where- 
fore do  ye  spend  money  for  that  which  is  not  bread,  and  your  labor 
for  that  which  satisfieth  not.  Hearken  diligently  unto  me,  and  eat 
ye  that  which  is  good,  and  let  your  soul  delight  itself  in  fatness. 
Incline  your  ear,  and  come  unto  me.  Hear,  and  your  soul  shall  live, 
and  I  will  make  with  you  an  everlasting  covenant,  even  the  sure 
mercies  of  David." 

The  promises  interwoven  with  the  invitations  of  the  Word  of  God 
are  said  to  be  in  "  Christ  Jesus  YEA  and  amen,"  true  and  faithful. 
They  are  founded  upon  the  finished  redeeming  work  of  Christ,  in 
which  the  Father  is  well  pleased,  and  which  is  the  pledge  of  all 
blessings,  the  fruit  of  His  purchase,  and  the  gift  of  His  grace.  It  is 
in  the  covenant,  confirmed,  and  ratified  in  the  death  of  Christ,  that 
the  sinner,  by  faith,  seeks  his  refuge,  and  now  ''joins  himself  to  the 
Lord  in  a  perpetual  covenant  never  to  be  forgotten."  He  now  "first 
gives  himself  to  the  Lord,  and  then  to  us,"  the  church.  Of  this 
covenant,  the  royal  psalmist  at  the  close  of  life,  commemorating  the 
vicissitudes  of  his  pilgrimage,  says,  "  Yet  the  Lord  has  made  with  me 
an  everlasting  covenant,  ordered  in  all  things,  and  sure,  for  this  is 
all  my  salvation,  and  all  my  desire." 

The  expressions  in  the  two  clauses  of  the  text  are  of  the  same  im- 
port. In  the  first  clause  the  apostle  says,  ''I  know  whom  I  have 
BELIEVED."  In  the  second,  he  says,  "  He  will  keep  what  I  have 
COMMITTED  to  Him."  CGmmitting  the  soul  into  the  hands  of  the 
Saviour,  and  believing  on  Him,  are  therefore  identical  in  import.    In 


HIS  SOUL  INTO  THE  HANDS  OF  THE  REDEEMER.  407 

the  first  chapter  of  the  Gospel  of  John,  we  read,  '<  To  as  many  as 
received  Him,  to  them  gave  He  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God, 
even  to  them  who  believe  on  His  name."  Faith,  receiving  the 
Saviour  in  all  His  saving  works  and  offices,  able  to  save  unto  the 
uttermost,  commits  the  interests  of  the  undying  precious  soul,  in  all 
circumstances,  in  time  and  for  eternity,  into  His  hands,  with  unwa- 
vering and  cordial  confidence.  Faith,  as  justifying  and  saving,  is 
simply  accrediting  the  testimony  which  God  has  given  concerning 
His  Son,  and  receiving  Him,  in  His  whole  character,  work,  and  ben- 
efits, as  He  is  therein  ofi"ered.  "  He  is  made  of  God  unto  us  wisdom, 
righteousness,  sanctification,  and  redemption."  "  By  grace  are  ye 
saved,  through  faith."  Faith  renounces  all  of  self,  finding  nothing 
therein  but  guilt  and  pollution,  magnifies  and  trusts  the  freeness  and 
riches  of  divine  grace,  and  accepts  and  embraces  Christ,  as  the  un- 
speakable gift  of  God.  This  faith,  humbling  the  sin-ner  and  exalting 
the  Saviour,  comprises  in  its  operation  the  elements  of  the  new  spir- 
itual life,  and  so  "  works  by  love,  purifies  the  heart,  and  overcomes 
the  world."  It  receives  Christ,  and  then  yields  all  to  Him,  in  love 
and  obedience.  Faith,  receiving  Christ  as  "  the  end  of  the  law  for 
righteousness,"  is  prior,  in  the  time  and  order  of  evangelical  exer- 
cise, to  its  rendering  dedication  to  the  service  of  Christ.  These  two 
exercises,  connected  as  they  ever  are,  are  distinct  in  their  nature,  as 
well  as  order.  The  one  looks  to  Christ  as  the  Lamb  of  God  taking 
away  the  sin  of  the  world,  is  the  act  of  a  condemned  sitiner  receiving 
pardon,  and  restored  to  favor ;  the  other  is  the  act  of  the  sinner,  quick- 
ened  and  restored  to  spiritual  life,  yielding  his  homage  of  love  and 
obedience  to  Him  "  who  loved  him,  and  gave  Himself  for  him,"  in 
dependence  upon  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  doctrines  of 
justification  and  sanctification  are  the  two  grand  pillars  of  evangel- 
ical truth,  standing  side  by  side,  inseparable  in  the  positions  they 
occupy,  yielding  mutual  influence,  yet  never  to  be  blended  and  con- 
founded. Faith,  receiving  Christ,  and  committing  the  soul  into  His 
hands,  owns  Him  as  a  complete  Saviour;  as  "  all  in  all ;  "  as  Prophet, 
to  receive  all  his  instructions ;  as  Priest,  to  rest  entirely  and  contin- 
ually on  His  atoning  sacrifice  and  prevailing  intercession ;  and  as 
Kiuff,  to  yield  submissively  and  obediently  to  His  rule  and  govern- 
ment, in  providence  and  grace.  The  surrender  to  Christ,  when  re- 
ceived by  faith,  connects  time  with  eternity,  respects,  in  their  appro- 
priate and  sure  combination,  pardon  and  holiness,  grace  and  glory. 


408        THE  christian's  confidence  in  committing 

When  the  sinner  comes  to  Christ,  resting  on  his  finished  redemption, 
and  pleading  the  promises,  and  so  finds  peace  in  believing,  he  can 
join  in  the  words — 

"  Welcome,  welcome,  dear  Redeemer, 

Welcome  to  this  heart  of  mine.  ' 

Lord,  I  make  a  full  surrender, 

Ev'ry  power  and  thought  be  Thine; 

Thine  entirely, 
Through  eternal  ages  Thine." 

II.  The  persuasion  which  the  believer  cherishes  of  the  everlasting 
interests  of  his  soul  in  the  hands  of  His  Redeemer. 

It  is  a  persuasion  founded  upon  right  knowledge.  It  is  a  belief  of 
the  truth  in  the  light  of  which  the  knowledge  to  which  the  apostle 
alludes,  and  the  persuasion  which  he  entertains,  are  formed  and  cul- 
tivated. Persuasion  is  the  gentle  and  strong  influence  of  the  truth, 
convincing  the  mind,  moulding  the  affections,  and  subduing  the  will. 
The  persuasion  of  which  the  apostle  speaks  is  therefore  one  formed 
and  regulated  by  the  truth,  and  enlightened  in  its  nature.  It  is  not 
the  efl'ect  of  blind  impulse,  of  assumed  visions  and  revelations,  or  of 
any  direct  impressions  on  the  soul,  without  the  constant  and  careful 
test  of  divine  truth.  The  apostle,  in  the  eighth  chapter  of  the  Epis- 
tle to  the  Romans,  says, ''  The  Spirit  itself  beareth  witness  with  our 
spirits,  that  we  are  the  children  of  God,"  &c.,  and  not  to  or  upon  our 
spirits.  He  exhibits  in  the  context,  in  an  instructive  and  rich 
discussion,  the  fruits  of  the  operation  of  the  Spirit  in  believers; 
and  thus  the  Spirit  bears  its  witness,  by  shining  on  His  own  work 
in  the  soul,  mortifying  its  corruptions,  and  quickening  and  nour- 
ishing its  holy  aflfections  through  the  truth.  Hence  an  accurate 
acquaintance  with  the  truth,  carefully  and  constantly  studied,  treas- 
ured up  and  applied,  is  necessary  to  the  formation,  preservation,  and 
establishment,  of  the  persuasion  or  assurance  spoken  of.  In  the 
knowledge  of  the  state,  character,  and  prospects,  of  ourselves,  as  sin- 
ners, derived  from  the  clear  and  faithfully-applied  knowledge  of 
divine  truth,  will  spring  forth,  in  increasing  tenderness  and  power, 
that  "repentance  which  is  unto  salvation."  In  the  knowledge  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in  His  mediatorial  character  and  work,  in  His 
glory  and  grace,  will  be  called  forth  that  faith  which  secures  and 
embraces  salvation,  and  which  is  the  vital  and  controlling  element 


HIS  SOUL  INTO  THE  HANDS  OF  THE  REDEEMER.  409 

of  the  Christian  life.  In  the  knowledge  of  the  delineation  of  the 
beauty  of  holiness  in  all  its  range  and  fullness,  exhihited  in  the 
Divine  Word,  and  urged  by  all  claims  and  motives  pressed  upon  the 
soul  by  the  love  of  Christ,  who  died  that  we  should  live,  ardent 
desires  and  strenuous  efforts  to  follow  after  peace  and  holiness,  in  the 
footsteps  of  Christ,  will  be  induced.  All  these  fitly  coalescing,  the 
soul  will  sweetly  and  firmly  rest  in  this  persuasion.  The  apostle 
prays  in  behalf  of  the  Ephesian  believers,  "  The  God  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Father  of  Glory,  give  unto  you  the  spirit  of  wis- 
dom and  revelation,  that  ye  may  know  what  is  the  hope  of  His  call- 
ing, and  what  the  riches  of  the  glory  of  Ilis  inheritance."  He  prays 
in  behalf  of  the  Philippian  believers,  "  This  I  pray,  that  your  love 
may  abound  more  and  more  in  knowledge  and  in  all  judgment."  For 
himself  he  says, ''  I  count  all  things  but  loss,  for  the  excellency  of  the 
knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus  my  Lord."  This  persuasion  is  the  result 
of  spiritual  illumination,  as  the  Spirit  opens  the  eyes  of  the  under- 
standing ^'  to  behold  wondrous  things  out  of  the  law  of  God."  It 
is  calmly  formed,  because  it  is  enlightened. 

This  persuasion  rests  upon  the  testimoni/  of  the  God  of  infinite 
veracity  and  faithfulness.  "  This  is  the  record,  that  God  hath  given 
us  eternal  life,  and  this  life  is  in  His  Son,"  says  the  apostle  John. 
God  has  given  the  record  sure  and  imperishable  in  His  own  inspired 
Word  of  Truth  and  Grace,  and  this  record  testifies  of  the  gift  a£ 
eternal  life  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  It  is  the  testimony  of  this 
record  alone  which  can  solve  the  questions  which  have  ever  per- 
plexed and  baffled  the  loftiest  exercise  of  human  reason,  which  affect 
God,  man,  sin,  death,  salvation,  the  results  in  eternity.  Without 
the  light  of  this  testimony,  men  remain  in  the  shadow  of  death, 
wandering  in  devious  paths,  in  the  broad  way  to  destruction.  But 
where  the  record  is  unfolded,  life  and  immortality  are  brought  to 
light.  It  is  given  by  inspiration,  and  stamped  with  the  seal  of  His 
divine  covenant  faithfulness.  Here  nothing  but  the  testimony  of 
God  can  avail  and  satisfy;  and  here,  in  the  record  he  has  given  us, 
it  is  found  in  all  its  clearness,  sufficiency,  and  practical  adaptation. 
If  in  temporal  matters  we  confide  our  interests  into  the  hands  of  our 
fellow  men  of  tried  honesty,  clear  judgment,  and  practical  wisdom, 
with  quietness,  shall  we  not,  in  the  higher  interests  of  our  souls, 
believing  the  record  of  His  truth,  in  firm  confidence  appropriate  His 
tried  Word  and  faithful  promises,  and  commit  our  souls  into  the 


410  THE  christian's  CONFIDENCE  IN  COMMITTING 

hands  of  the  crucified  but  now  exalted  Redeemer  ?  In  this  record 
we  have  the  matter  attested — ''  eternal  life  which  is  in  Christ,  and 
the  testimony  of  God  concerning  it."  Both  are  needed  as  a  basis 
for  the  persuasion  of  the  Christian,  viz  :  a  divine  testimony,  author- 
itative, sure,  and  satisfying,  and  the  matter  attested  of  inestimable 
value,  and  suited  to  man's  wants  and  interests  in  eternal  life.  The 
apostle,  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  writes, 
bearing  upon  this  point,  "  God,  willing  to  show  to  the  heirs  of 
promise  the  immutability  of  His  counsel,  confirmed  it  by  an  oath ; 
that  by  two  immutable  things,  wherein  it  was  impossible  for  God  to 
lie,  we  might  have  a  strong  consolation,  who  have  fled  for  refuge  to 
lay  hold  upon  the  hope  set  before  us."  The  truths  in  this  record  are 
the  opened  Scriptures,  because  written  on  the  tablets  of  the  hearts 
of  Christ's  children  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  There  grows  a  strict  cor- 
respondence between  the  experience  of  the  soul,  and  the  teachings 
of  divine  truth  which  it  receives.  The  believer  thus  "  sets  to  .his 
seal  that  God  is  true,"  and  "  has  the  witness  in  himself."  Herein 
is  found  a  ground  of  his  full  persuasion. 

In  the  progress  of  the  Christian  life,  the  believer  rests  his  per- 
suasion and  confidence  on  the  same  grounds  on  which  he  at  first,  at 
conversion,  committed  his  soul  into  the  hands  of  the  Redeemer.  At 
every  stage  of  his  course,  he  must  be  "  looking  unto  Jesus."  "  As  he 
has  received  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  so  he  must  walk  in  Him."  His 
experience  and  language  are,  "  I  am  crucified  with  Christ,  neverthe- 
less I  live ;  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me  j  and  the  life  that  I  now 
live  in  the  flesh  is  a  life  of  faith  in  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  me, 
and  gave  Himself  for  me." 

In  proportion  to  the  clearness  and  directness  of  the  views  which 
the  believer  entertains  of  the  glory  and  grace  of  the  Saviour,  as  re- 
vealed in  His  Word,  will  be  the  stability  of  his  faith  and  the  sweet- 
ness of  his  assurance.  We  are  prone  to  seek  within  and  from  our- 
selves some  ground  of  confidence  in  our  approach  to  the  Saviour, 
substituting  our  exercises  and  experience  in  the  place  of  the  finished 
work  of  Christ,  and  the  work  of  the  Spirit  forming  in  us  *'  Christ 
the  hope  of  glory."  Our  exercises  vary  through  the  sympathy  ex- 
isting between  body  and  soul,  and  in  the  decays  and  fluctuations 
incident  to  the  spiritual  life.  Corresponding  with  these  fluctuations 
will  be  those  of  the  light,  peace,  and  spiritual  strength,  arising  from 
the  right  and  vigorous  operation  of  that  faith  which  receives  aud 


HIS  SOUL  INTO  THE  HANDS  OF  THE  REDEEMER.     411 

exalts  Christ,  and  ever  draws  out  of  the  fullness  of  His  grace.  The 
native  pride  of  our  hearts  is  insidiously  seeking  to  find  what  may  be 
termed  an  evangelical  righteousness  of  our  own,  instead  of  directly 
appropriating  the  righteousness  of  Christ.  All  that  the  Christian 
learns  from  the  study  of  his  own  heart,  and  the  dealings  of  the  Lord 
reviewed,  should  lead  him  to  a  more  simple  and  entire  trust  in  the 
Saviour,  in  the  reception  of  all  His  grace.  It  deserves  to  be  remarked, 
that  the  apostle  does  not  say,  "  I  know  that  I  have  believed,"  but 
"  WHOM  I  have  believed."  It  is  our  knowledge  of  our  confidence 
and  love  to  the  Saviour  that  defines  and  characterizes  our  spiritual 
state.  In  all  circumstances  of  trials  without  and  conflicts  within,  it 
is  equally  our  privilege  and  duty  to  go  to  the  Saviour  by  ''  the  new 
and  living  way  which  He  has  opened  and  consecrated,"  and,  plead- 
ing the  promises  with  a  childlike  freedom  and  boldness,  "  obtain 
mercy,  and  find  grace  to  help  in  time  of  need." 

It  is  incumbent  on  Christians  to  treasure  up  the  memory  of  their 
experience  of  the  wisdom,  loving  kindness,  power,  and  faithfulness 
of  God,  in  their  heavenly  pilgrimage.  "  Thou  shalt  remember  all 
the  ways  in  which  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  led  thee."  The  use  of 
Christian  experience,  in  the  review  of  it,  is  not  to  make  it  a  ground 
of  confidence  or  source  of  comfort  in  itself,  but  to  view  it  as  a  proof 
and  confirmation  of  the  Divine  Word,  and  thus  to  derive  therefrom 
encouragement  to  trust  in  it  with  firmer  and  more  unreserved  confi- 
dence. Paul  says,  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  second- Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians,  referring  to  past  deliverances,  "  Who  delivered  from  so 
great  a  death,  and  doth  deliver ;  in  whom  we  trust  that  He  will  yet 
deliver."  The  review  of  the  past  is  made  subservient  to  the  exer- 
cise of  trust  in  the  providence  and  promise  of  God  for  the  future.  In 
the  book  of  Psalms,  which  comprises  an  anatomy  of  the  believing 
soul  in  all  the  phases  of  its  experience,  we  find  continual  reference 
to  the  past,  as  an  encouragement  to  trust,  hope,  and  comfort,  in  the 
present,  and  for  the  future. 

In  cherishing  and  cultivating  this  Christian  assurance,  while  it 
must  rest  on  Christ  as  the  only  and  sure  foundation,  the  Holy  Spirit, 
whose  office  it  is  to  take  the  things  of  Christ,  and  show  them  to  the 
soul,  and  who  is  the  great  agent  in  the  economy  of  redemption,  in 
renewing,  sanctifying  the  soul,  and  training  it  for  eternal  life,  must 
be  specially  honored.  He  is  represented  as  ''  sealing  us  unto  the  day 
of  redemption,"  and  as  "  being  the  earnest  of  our  inheritance."    We 


412        THE  christian's  confidence  in  committing 

are  not  to  grieve  this  Spirit  by  failing  in  dependence  upon  His 
needed  and  promised  gracious  influences.  How  striking  is  the  com- 
prehensive and  beautiful  delineation  of  the  Christian  life  in  the 
twentieth  and  twenty-first  verses  of  the  Epistle  of  Jude :  "  But, 
ye,  beloved,  building  up  yourselves  on  your  most  holy  faith,  praying 
in  the  Holy  Ghost ;  keep  yourselves  in  the  love  of  God,  looking  for 
the  mercy  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  unto  eternal  life."  The  apostle's 
prayer  in  behalf  of  the  believers  at  Rome,  whom  he  addressed,  was, 
"Now  the  God  of  hope  fill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace,  in  believing, 
that  ye  may  abound  in  hope  through  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

We  are  exhorted  (Hebrews,  x,  22)  to  draw  near  with  a  true  heart, 
in  the  full  assurance  of  faith,  &c.  In  the  Hebrews,  sixth  chapter, 
eleventh  verse,  we  are  exhorted  "  to  show  the  same  diligence  to  the 
full  assurance  of  hope  to  the  end."  The  assurance  of  faith  and  the 
assurance  of  hope  differ  in  the  same  manner  as  faith  and  hope  them- 
selves differ.  Faith  accredits  the  divine  testimony,  and  applies  the 
truth  directly  and  persistently  to  the  soul.  In  its  essential  nature 
and  office,  it  is  appropriating.  It  regards  the  truth  not  merely  spec- 
ulatively, with  mental  approbation,  and  with  vague  and  indefinite 
application  to  mankind  at  large,  but  brings  the  whole  soul  in  indi- 
vidual subjection  to  it,  seeking  to  receive  its  instruction  and  partake 
its  blessings.  Hope  fastens  on  the  promises,  and  lays  hold  on  eternal 
life  set  forth  therein.  It  is  evident  that  hope  and  the  assurance  of 
hope  follow  in  the  order  of  nature  and  the  process  of  influence,  faith, 
and  the  assurance  of  faith.  But  the  trinity  of  graces^— faith,  hope, 
and  charity — work  and  live  and  grow  together.  The  true  way  to 
gain  assurance  of  hope  is  to  cultivate  precious  faith,  growing  into 
assurance.  This  view,  rightly  entertained  and  employed,  will  ani- 
mate and  strengthen  faith,  and  inspire  comfort.  This  assurance  is 
the  privilege  and  duty  of  every  Christian,  presented  in  promise  and 
precept,  and  none  should  fail  ardently  and  diligently  to  labor  for  the 
attainment  and  enjoyment  of  it. 

The  subject  teaches  us — 

1,   The  glory  of  the  Redeemer,  as  the  great  object  of  faith. 

"  We  beheld  His  glory,"  says  John,  "  the  glory  of  the  only-be- 
gotten of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth,  and  of  His  fullness  have 
we  all  received  grace  for  grace."  His  essential  glory  He  had  with 
the  Father  before  the  foundation  of  the  world.  He  became  Im- 
manuel,  "  God  manifest  in  the  flesh."     His  birth  was  heralded  by 


IIIS  SOUL  INTO  THE  HANDS  OF  THE  REDEEMER.  413 

the  angelic  host  on  the  plains  of  Bethlehem,  uttering  the  song, 
"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  peace  on  earth,  and  good  will  towards 
men."  He  passed  through  His  scene  and  course  of  humiliation, 
meeting  the  contradiction  of  sinners,  working  wonders  of  mercy,  and 
distilling  the  lessons  of  wisdom.  After  the  agonies  of  Gethseracne, 
and  amid  the  desertion  and  tortures  of  the  Cross,  He  gives  up  the 
ghost,  exclaiming,  "  It  is  finished."  He  brake  the  bonds  of  death, 
rose  from  the  grave,  ascended  on  high,  leading  captivity  captive,  and 
is  now  exalted  on  the  throne,  to  give  repentance  and  remission  of 
sins.  He  is  crowned  Lord  of  all,  having  all  power  in  heaven  and 
on  earth,  directing  and  controlling  all  the  events  of  providGnce,  and 
head  over  all  things,  to  save  and  bless  His  blood-bought  church. 
Angels  adore  Him  as  their  Lord.  The  redeemed  in  glory  exult  in 
the  song,  "  "Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain,  who  loved  us  and 
washed  us  in  His  own  blood,"  &c.  It  is  for  us  dwellers  on  earth  to 
take  our  place  at  the  foot  of  the  Cross,  and  look  up  to  the  Lamb  of 
God  taking  away  our  sin,  and  so  find  peace  in  believing.  lie  said, 
"  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw  all  men  unto  Me."  Feeling  the  at- 
tractions of  the  Cross,  let  us  look  upwards  to  His  throne,  whence  He 
dispenses  all  grace,  leading  us  on  to  the  glory  which  is  to  be  revealed, 
becoming  more  and  more  assimilated  to  His  image.  "  We  all,  with 
open  face  beholding,  as  in  a  glass,  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  are  changed 
into  the  same  image  from  glory  to  glory,  even  as  by  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord." 

2.  We  learn  the  inestimable  value  of  the  sacred  Scrij)tures,  which 
reveal  Christ  and  His  great  salvation. 

Our  Saviour  said,  in  reference  to  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, then  existing,  "  Search  the  Scriptures,  for  in  them  ye  think 
ye  have  eternal  life,  and  they  are  they  which  testify  of  Me."  "  The 
spirit  of  prophecy  was  the  testimony  of  Jesus."  The  scriptures  alone, 
rendered  effectual  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  "  make  wise  unto  salvation, 
and  furnish  unto  all  good  works."  *'  In  the  reading  of  them,"  we  find 
"  consolation  and  hope."  The  matter  in  the  Psalms  very  impressively 
unfolds  the  efficacy,  value,  and  preciousness,  of  these  Scriptures.  The 
hundred  and  nineteenth  Psalm,  at  great  length  and  in  varied  forms, 
expresses  the  delight  of  the  believing  soul  in  them,  and  the  influence 
exerted  by  them.  The  Word  of  God  should  dwell  in  us  richly,  hid- 
den in  our  hearts.  Christians  fail  in  making  the  Word  of  God  the 
theme  of  their  daily  and  continued  study,  carefully,  thoroughly  pon- 


414        THE  christian's  confidence  in  committing 

dered  and  digested,  and  with  prayer  strictly  applied  to  their  indi- 
vidual cases.  Then  would  they  be  rooted  and  grounded  in  love  to 
Christ,  and  be  built  up  on  their  most  holy  faith.  It  is  said  of  the 
man  of  God,  in  the  first  Psalm,  "  His  delight  is  in  the  law  of  the 
Lord,  and  in  His  law  doth  he  meditate,  day  and  night."  The  effect 
is  described.  "  He  shall  be  like  a  tree  planted  by  rivers  of  water, 
that  bringeth  forth  his  fruit  in  his  season ;  his  leaf  also  shall  not 
wither,  and  whatsoever  he  doeth  shall  prosper." 

3.  We  learn  the  freeness,  as  well  as  greatness,  jp/ «^e  salvation 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 

It  is,  by  Christ  Himself,  dearly  purchased  through  His  atoning 
sacrifice ;  but  to  the  sinner  it  is  the  gift  of  free  grace,  proffered  and 
bestowed  '•  without  money  and  without  price."  The  invitation  at 
the  close  of  the  sacred  volume  is,  "  The  Spirit  and  the  bride  say 
come.  And  let  him  that  heareth  say  come.  And  let  him  that 
is  athirst  come;  and  whosoever  will,  let  him  take  the  water  of 
life  freely."  Jesus  declared,  <'Him  that  cometh  untp  Me,  I 
will  in  no  wise  cast  out."  Paul  (in  Romans,  iii,  22)  states  *'  the 
righteousness  of  God,  which  is  by  faith  of  Jesus  Christ  is  unto  all 
and  upon  all  them  that  believe,  for  there  is  no  difference ;  for  all 
have  sinned,  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God."  Sinners  under 
conviction  are  embarrassed,  and  do  not  discern  and  appreciate  the 
entire  freeness  of  the  way  of  access  to  God  on  the  throne  of 
grace  through  Christ,  because  they  fail  to  distinguish  between  the 
warrant  to.  believe  iu  Christ,  and  the  views  and  dispositions  requisite 
to  embrace  that  warrant.  The  warrant  to  believe,  is  simply  and  wholly 
the  free  ofter  of  the  Gospel,  in  the  freeness  and  fullness. of  the  bless- 
ings of  redemption  to  all  who  will  accept.  It  is  a  faithful  saying, 
worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to 
save  sinners.  His  only  plea, is,  I  am  a  sinner;  his  only  claim,  Jesus 
is  the  Saviour,  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost.  The  views  and  disposi- 
tions requisite  to  embrace  Christ  are  alone  a  deep  and  just  conviction 
of  guilt  and  sin,  an  utter  renunciation  of  righteousness  of  his  own,  and 
the  refuge  of  the  soul  in  the  controlling  desires  to  the  needed,  suit- 
able, and  all-sufiicicnt  salvation  in  Christ.  The  convinced  and  seek- 
ing sinner,  delivered  from  his  embarrassment,,  and  discovering  the 
new  and  living  way,  in  the  freeness  of  divine  grace,  conies  to  Christ 
in  eutireness  of  cordial  dependence,  and  free  and  full  surrender. 
His  language  is — 


HIS  SOUL  INTO  THE  HANDS  OF  THE  REDEEMER.  415 

{  "Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea, 

But  that  Thy  blood  was  shed  for  me, 
And  that  Thou  bid'st  me  come  to  Thee, 
Oh,  Lamb  of  God,  I  come. 

"  Just  as  I  am,  Thou  wilt  receive, 
"Wilt  welcome,  pardon,  cleanse,  reliere, 
Because  Thy  promise  I  believe, 
Oh,  Lamb  of  God,  I  come." 

How  -wondronsly  great  and  free  is  this  salvation.     "  Come,  for  aU 
things   are   readi/."     Well   may   we   exclaim,    "How    SHALL    WE 

ESCAPE,  IF  WE  NEGLECT  SO  GREAT  SALVATION  ?  " 

4.  We  learn  that  the  doctrine  of  salvation  hi/  grace,  through  faith, 
promotes  and  secures  7ioliness  and  good  works. 

The  cavils  and  objections  on  this  point,  which  have  ever  been 
current  in  an  unbelieving  world,  were  addressed  to  the  apostle  in  his 
day.  He  at  once  repels  them,  with  strong  emphasis  and  holy  in- 
di"-nation.  "  Do  we,  then,  through  faith,  make  void  the  law?  God 
forbid.  Nay,  we  establish  the  law."  "  Shall  we  continue  in  sin,  that 
grace  may  abound  ?  God  forbid.  How  shall  we,  who  are  dead  to 
sin,  live  any  longer  therein  ?  "  Dr.  Owen  remarks  that  the  doctrine 
of  divine  grace  may  be  perverted  and  abused  by  men  unacquainted 
with  its  living  power,  but  the  principle  of  it  in  the  soul  never  can. 
The  sinner,  when  united  to  Christ  by  faith,  is  a  new  creature,  with 
holy  love  implanted  within  him.  This  love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the 
law.  It  is  this  which  now  guides  and  regulates  and  controls  the 
motives,  affections,  and  will.  When  the  law  was  first  written  on 
tables  of  stone,  they  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  Moses,  fell  from 
his  hand,  and  were  broken.  They  were  afterward  written  anew, 
and  placed  within  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  beneath  the  mercy  seat. 
This  well  illustrates  the  covenant  of  works  under  which  man  was 
first  placed,  when  by  transgression  he  fell,  and  the  covenant  was 
broken.  Under  the  new  covenant  of  grace,  founded  on  better  prom- 
ises, the  law  is  ^vritten  by  the  Divine  Spirit  on  the  heart  of  the 
believer,  and  the  faithfulness  of  God  in  the  covenant  is  pledged. 
There  are  two  distinct  yet  ever  united  blessings  of  this  covenant 
referred  to  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  quoted  by  Paul  in  the  eighth 
chapter  of  his  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  The  first  is,  "  T  will  be  mer- 
ciful to  their  unrighteousness,  and  their  sins  and  iniquities  will  I 
remember  no  more."     The  second  is,  "  I  will  put  my  laws  in  their 


416  THE  CHRISTIAN'S  CONFIDENCE  IN  COMMITTING 

taiinds,  and  write  them  in  their  hearts;  and  I  will  be  to  them  a  Grod, 
and  they  shall  be  my  people."  Christ's  redeemed  people  are  a  "  pe- 
culiar people/'  ever  zealous  in  good  works.  ''  The  grace  of  God 
which  briugeth  salvation"  ever  teaches  to  deny  ungodliness  and 
worldly  lust,  &c.  Christian  experience  will  always  accord  with  and 
appreciate  the  sentiment  in  Romans,  sixth  chapter,  fourteenth  verse, 
"Sin  shall  not  have  dominion  over  you;  for  ye  are  not  under  the 
law,  but  under  grace ; "  not  under  the  law  as  a  covenant  of  works 
unto  life,  but  yet  under  it  as  the  perfect  rule  of  duty,  delighted  in 
by  the  exercise  of  that  love  which  is  implanted  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 

"  To  see  the  law  by  Christ  fulfilled, 
And  hear  His  pardoning  voice, 
4  Will  change  a  slave  into  a  child, 

5  -.  And  duty  into  choice. 

■       M 

"  What  shall  I  do  ?  was  once  the  word, 

That  I  may  worthier  grow? 
What  shall  I  render  to  the  Lord? 
Is  my  inquiry  now." 

5.  We  learn  that  this  Jmoioledge  and  persuasion,  or  an  assured 
faith  in  Christ,  is  the  spring  of  true  enjoyment  and  happiness  in  the 
soul.  , 

•  "  Thou  wilt  keep  him  in  perfect  peace  whose  mind  is  staid  on  Thee^ 
because  he  trustefh  in  Thee."  In  proportion  as  the  soul  of  the  be- 
liever  is  staid  upon  Christ,  in  full  persuasion  and  confirmed  faith, 
will  he  have  peace,  per/ec^  ^mce.  In  illustration  of  this,  we  shall 
merely  quote  three  passages  from  the  New  Testament.  Romans,  v, 
1 — 5  :  "  Therefore,  being  justified  by  faith,  we  have  peace  with  God, 
through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  by  whom  also  we  have  access  to 
the  grace  wherein  we  stand,  and  rejoice  in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God. 
And  not  only  so,  but  we  glory  in  tribulation,  knowing  that  tribula- 
tion worketh  patience;  and  patience,  experience;  and  experience, 
hope ;  and  hope  maketh  not  ashamed,  because  the  love  of  God  is 
Bhed  abroad  in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost."  Philippians,  iv,  G — 
7;  "Be  careful  for  nothing;  but  in  everything,  by  prayer  and  sup- 
plication, with  thanksgiving,  let  your  requests  be  made  known  unto 
God.  And  the  peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all  understanding,  shall 
keep  your  hearts  and  minds  through  Christ  Jesus."  Romans,  viii, 
31—35  :  "  What  shall  we  then  say  to  these  things  ?     If  God  be  for 


niS  SOUL  INTO  THE  HANDS  OF  THE  REDEEMER.  417 

US,  who  can  be  against  us  ?  He  that  spared  not  His  own  Son,  but 
delivered  Ilim  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  He  uot  with  Ilim  also  freely 
give  us  all  things?  Who  shall  lay  anything  to  the  charge  of  God's 
elect  ?  It  is  God  that  justificth.  Who  is  he  that  condemneth  ?  It 
is  Christ  that  died,  yea,  rather,  that  is  risen  again,  who  is  even  at 
the  right  hand  of  God,  who  also  makcth  intercession  for  us.  Who 
shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of  Christ  ? "  He  whose  soul  can 
cultivate  the  spirit  of  these  passages  is  the  happy  man. 


27 


THE   TWO   COURSES.  421 

case,  despises  facts  and  devotes  himself  to  phantoms;  isolates  him- 
self from  the  sympathy  of  humanity,  defies  the  scrutiny  of  Divinity, 
boasts  of  his  freedom  from  sin,  and  idles  away  his  life  as  though 
there  were  no  ill  to  be  feared  in  time  or  eternity.  Surely  every  man 
should  pray  that,  whatever  else  shall  happen,  he  may  never  fall  into 
such  madness  as  this. 

We  may  saij  "we  have  no  sin,"  but  we  have  sin.  Deceived  or 
not  deceived,  the  fact  remains  the  same.  The  truth  may  not  be  in 
us,  but  the  sin  is  in  us. 

How  strange  it  is,  that  any  should  be  disposed  to  deny  sin]  Look 
for  a  moment  at  some  of  the  questions  connected  with  such  denial. 
For  instance — 

What  kind  of  a  book  is  the  Bible,  if  "we  have  no  sjn?" 
Here,  in  part  at  least,  is  the  oldest,  and  in  all  respects  the  most 
sacred  book  in  the  world.  Pre-eminently,  it  is  a  historical  and  pro- 
phetical book.  Its  history  goes  back  to  the  beginning  of  time;  its 
prophecy,  forward  to  the  end  of  time.  In  both  relations  it  is  uni- 
versal. It  commences  with  our  race  in  its  smallest  origin,  and  con- 
cludes with  its  last  and  greatest  expansion.  But  this  history — what 
is  it  ?  It  is  the  history  of  sin  and  salvation  !  And  this  prophecy — 
what  is  it  ?  It  is  the  prophecy  of  sin  and  salvation  !  These  are  the 
all-pervading  and  all-controlling  themes  of  the  whole  book — sin  and 
salvation.  Now,  if  "  we  have  no  sin,"  there  is  no  sin ;  and  if  there 
be  no  sin,  there  is  no  salvation;  and  if  there  be  neither  sin  nor  salva- 
tion, this  history  is  a  He,  and  this  prophecy  is  a  lie.  Nothing  can  be 
plainer  than  this :  if  there  be  neither  sin  nor  salvation,  the  tvhole 
Bible  is  a  lie — for,  if  sin  and  salvation  be  abstracted  from  the  Bible, 
nothing  is  left. 

Again  :  "What  kind  of  a  world  is  this,  if  "  we  have  no 
SIN  ?  "  If  the  Bible  be  supposed  false,  our  knowledge  of  the  world 
must  be  derived  from  the  world  itself.  There  is  no  other  authority. 
The  Maker  of  the  world,  if  there  be  any,  says  nothing.  Angels,  if 
there  be  any,  say  nothing.  Disembodied  men,  if  there  be  any,  say 
nothing.  Men  in  the  body  are  passing  shadows,  in  comparison  with 
the  age  of  th.e  earth.  Profane  history  is  all  modern  history.  Mythol- 
ogy and  poetry  are  inventions  and  dreams.  The  records  of  science 
are  recent.  The  monuments  of  art  are  recent.  Oral  traditions  arc 
confused  and  untrustworthy.  Nothing  is  left,  as  a  really-ancient 
source  of  instruction,  but  the  surface  of  the  planet  itself. 


422  THE    TWO    COURSES. 

True,  this  is  more  instructive  than  it  was.  Geology  opens  its 
strata,  like  so  many  pages  of  a  legible  and  divine  volume.  But  what 
does  it  teach  ?  Substantially,  it  teaches  that  the  world  has  always 
been  as  full  of  evil  as  it  is  now — always  a  world  of  suffering  and 
death.  As  to  prophecy,  if  prophetic  at  all,  it  teaches  that  the  world 
will  always  remain,  as  it  has  been  and  is,  the  awful  realm  of  suffering 
and  death. 

What — say  you — does  not  the  earth  bear  testimony  to  sin  ?  Not 
a  word  like  it !  And  does  it  not  intimate  a  hope  of  salvation  ?  Not 
a  word  like  it !  How,  then,  do  you  account  for  its  suffering  and 
death  ?  Not  in  any  way !  There  is  no  use  in  trying.  AVe  may 
suppose  an  Almighty  Devil  made  the  world,  and  provided  suffering 
and  death  for  his  amusement !  Without  the  Bible,  we  are  at  an 
utter  loss  to  account  for  anything. 

Again  :  What  a  strange  thing  is  conscience,  if  "  we  have 
NO  SIN ! "  If  the  Bible  be  false  in  its  allegation  of  sin,  and  nature 
silent  as  to  the  existence  of  sin,  and  the  truth  is,  that  ^'  we  have  no 
sin,"  why  the  condemnations  of  conscience  ?  These  are  known 
everywhere.  Both  sexes,  all  ages,  and  all  conditions,  know  what  is 
meant  by  an  accusing  conscience.  The  stout  man  trembles,  and  the 
pale  woman  withers,  under' its  power.  The  little  child,  downcast 
and  blushing,  shows  its  early  influence.  Old  age,  hard-featured  and 
long-practiced,  can  scarcely  hide  the  pains  it  inflicts.  The  savage 
feels  it  in  his  most  secret  haunts,  and  the  refined  civilian  enters  no 
social  circle  where  conscience  clings  not  to  him,  the  closest  com- 
panion and  qiiickest  respondent  in  all  the  group.  But  how  is  this, 
if,  indeed,  "  we  have  no  sin  ?  "     Can  any  man  tell  ? 

Asjain :  What  a  strange  thing  is  human  history,  if  "we 
have  no  sin  ! "  True,  as  stated,  this  is  not  an  ancient  history. 
Still,  it  includes  several  thousand  years.  Trace  it,  and  what  do  we 
see.?  All  manner  of  acknowledgments  of  sin  !  Where  there  is  no 
Bible,  conscience  prompts  such  acknowledgments.  Natural  evils 
become  tokens  of  the  wrath  of  superior  powers  whom  man  has 
offended.  Storms,  earthquakes,  volcanoes,  are  tokens.  J]very 
eclipse,  of  sun  or  moon,  is  a  token.  Every  drought,  famine,  pesti- 
lence, every  ordinary  disease,  or  pain,  accident,  bereavement,  is  a 
token.  Gods  multiply  in  heaven,  like  the  stars.  On  earth,  they 
are  as  numerous  as  the  hills  and  woods,  streams  and  waves,  or  even 
as  the  animals  in  all.     There  is  no  end  of  gods;  and  every  god  is 


THE  TWO   COURSES.  423 

angry,  and  every  evil  a  judgment.  So,  temples  are  built,  altars 
erected,  priesthoods  consecrated,  shrines  endowed,  sacrifices  offered, 
and  all  rites  of  worship  established.  Are  not  such  the  facts  of 
heathenism,  through  the  whole  historic  period  ?  On  the  other  hand, 
where  the  Bible  has  been  known,  and  even  before  its  existence,  ac- 
cording to  the  Patriarchal  traditions  adopted  and  sanctioned  by  it, 
what  do  we  see  but  a  corresponding  though  truer  and  sublimer 
course  ?  The  Patriarchs  confessed  sin  and  offered  sacrifices ;  the  Isra- 
elites did  the  same  ;  Christians,  virtuallj',  have  always  done  the  same. 
First  came  the  family  altar;  then,  the  national  tabernacle;  then,  the 
national  temple;  and,  since  these,  innumerable  cathedrals,  churches, 
and  chapels,  all  over  the  world :  all  symbolizing  the  same  things — 
the  confession  of  sin  and  hope  of  salvation.  How,  then,  shall  we 
account  for  all  this,  if,  indeed,  "  we  have  no  sin  ?  " 

But,  look  at  one  other  question,  a  moment :  What  kind  of  a 
BEING  IS  God,  if  "we  have  no  sin ?"  To  me,  it  were  as  reason- 
able to  say,  we  have  no  God,  as  to  say,  "  we  have  no  sin."  Still,  the 
text  supposes  the  sinner  to  deceive  himself,  not  by  denying  God,  but 
by  denying  sin.  It  is  proper  to  ask,  therefore,  what  kind  of  a  being 
is  God,  if  "  we  have  no  sin  ?  " 

Why,  in  addition  to  all  minor  fabrications,  has  He  allowed  this 
great  historical  and  prophetical  fiction — this  most  mischievous  false- 
hood of  the  Bible — to  be  imposed,  not  only  on  the  ignorant  and 
vicious,  but  also  On  the  wisest,  best,  and  noblest  of,  mankind  ?  Has 
He  no  concern  for  His  own  honor — no  regard  for  our  interests?  Are 
truth  and  falsehood  one  to  Him  ? 

Why,  also,  did  He  create  such  an  imperfect  world  as  this  ?  If 
there  be  no  sin  in  it,  why  so  many  evi'h  ?  Could  He  not  have  made 
it  a  home  of  safety,  bliss,  and  immortality  ?  What  good  does  it  yield 
Him  to  breathe  the  blue  famine  on  a  moaning  continent  ?  or  let  loose 
the  plague  or  cholera,  to  glide  like  a  curse  round  the  globe  ?  What 
pleasure  can  he  find  in  burning  up  little  infants  with  scarlet  fever, 
or  strangling  them  with  whooping-cough,  or  stupefying  them  with 
dropsy  on  the  brain  ?  Of  what  advantage  is  it  to  Him  to  consume 
the  lungs  of  youthful  beauty  and  genius  ?  to  craze  the  only  son  of 
the  poor  widow — driving  the  one  to  the  madhouse,  and  the  other  to 
the  grave  ?  to  paralyze  the  father  of  a  family,  and  lay  him  helpless 
for  years  in  the  midst  of  the  dependent  group,  to  whom  he  becomes 
a  burden,  instead  of  proving  an  aid  ?  or,  to  take  from  an  affectionate 


424  THE   TWO   COURSES. 

old  man  his  last  child,  and  turn  the  tottering  steps  of  the  friendless 
survivor  to  the  gate  of  an  alms-house  for  the  shelter  of  his  last  sad 
days  ?  Does  it  please  the  Omnipotent  to  shake  a  city  into  ruins 
by  an  earthquake,  or  overwhelm  it  with  the  lava  of  a  volcano  ?  But, 
why  multiply  instances  ?     Let  us  pass  on. 

Why,  then,  does  God  set  up  this  power  of  conscience  in  our 
breasts  ?  Are  not  external  evils  enough  ?  How  can  He,  in  addition 
to  all  these,  as  if  with  fiendish  malice,  enthrone  an  everlasting  liar 
and  irresistible  tormentor  within  us,  to  accuse  us  falsely,  and  scourge 
us  pitilessly,  day  and  night,  at  home  and  abroad,  as  long  as  we  live  ? 
Is  not  this  the  very  climax  of  infinite  tyranny  ? 

And  yet  again  :  How  is  it  that  God  has  perpetuated  this  condition 
so  long?  If  the  Bible  be  a  lie,  what  an  old  lie  it  is  !  And  as  for 
the  world,  even  if  the  Bible  be  true,  how  long  the  world  has  been  in 
ruins !  And  if  the  Bible  be  not  true,  who  can  tell  how  much  longer 
the  world  has  been  in  ruins  ?  And  what  an  ancient  oppressor  is 
conscience !  And  as  for  society,  how  Protestantism,  Romanism,  and 
Grecianismj  Mohammedanism  and  Judaism;  Lamaism,  Foheism, 
and  Buddhism;  Brahminism,  Parseeism,  and  Fetichism;  and  all 
manner  of  religious  impositions— and,  with  these,  all  manner  of 
civil  despotisms — have  crowded  the  ages,  and  enclosed,  covered, 
crushed,  and  cursed,  all  nations  and  generations !  There  has  beeu 
no.  respite — none,  none  !  Still,  we  speak  of  an  infinitely-perfect  God, 
as  creating,  upholding,  and  overruling,  all !  Who  can  account  for 
these  things,  if  "  we  have  no  sin  ?  " 

Alas,  my  friends!  we  have  dwelt  on  these  almost  irreverent  topics 
long  enough  to  see,  that,  ''  if  we  say  we  have  no  sin,"  we  do  indeed 
"  deceive  ourselves,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  us."  The  truth  is,  that  the 
Bible  is  trite  !  The  truth  is,  that  the  sin  charged  against  us  by  the 
Bible  \fi  justly  charged,  and  that  all  the  evils  in  the  world  have  been 
occasioned  by  sin  !  The  truth  is,  that  conscience  rightly  condemns 
us !  The  truth  is,  that  society  has  acted  properly  in  confession  of 
sin  !  The  truth  is,  that  God  has  been  constrained  to  manifest  Him- 
self unto  us  in  ways  opposite  to  those  He  would  have"  preferred,  be- 
cause of  our  sin  !  The  denial  of  sin  is  the  essence  of  infidelity.  If 
we  deny  sin,  we  deny  salvation;  if  we  deny  salvation,  we  deny  the 
Saviour;  if  we  deny  the  Saviour,  we  deny  God;  and  if  we  deny 
God,  all  faith  is  gone,  and  with  it  all  hope,  and  nothing  remains  but 
the  deepest  despair  of  utter  unbelief.     The  Lord  save  us  from  such 


THE   TWO    COURSES.  425 

an  Issue  !  From  all  untruth  and  all  self-deception,  let  us  all  unite  ia 
prayings  "  Good  Lord!  deliver  us!  " 

And  what  now  ?  If  it  be  so  plain  that  the  denial  of  our  sin  is  the 
wrong  course,  let  us  turn  to  the  rie/ht  course — the  confession  of  sin. 

II.   The  Right  Course. 

"If  we  confess  our  sins,  lie  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our 
sins,  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness." 

It  seems  strange  that  we  are  so  reluctant  to  confess  our  sins.  True, 
in  addition  to  natural  depravity,  we  have  peculiarities  of  personal 
wickedness  which  it  may  appear  best  to  conceal.  The  depravity  is 
common.  No  one  has  more  reason  to  be  ashamed  of  that  than 
another.  Besides,  it  is  rather  a  misfortune  than  a  fault.  But  our 
personal  sins  are  voluntary;  and.  therefore  we  feel  our  responsibility 
for  them,  and  the  humiliation  of  them.  Still,  as  every  man  has 
thus  sinned;  and  we  are  told  that  "  whosoever  shall  Icecj)  the  ivhole 
law,  and  yet  offend  in  one  point,  he  is  guilty  of  all;  "  and  so  have 
cause  to  believe  that  there  is  not  as  much  difference  among  sinners, 
in  the  sight  of  God,  as  might  be  supposed :  it  is  strange,  after  all, 
that  we  are  so  reluctant  to  make  confession. 

The  fact  is,  I  presume,  that,  in  all  ordinary  cases,  we  are  so  con- 
scious of  our  depravity,  and  so  full  of  recollections  of  voluntary 
iniquity,  that  each  one  thinks  himself  worse  than  his  neighbor,  and 
is  afraid  to  let  it  be  known  how  vile  he  has  been,  lest  it  should  be 
demonstrated  that  he  is  worse.  If,  however,  as  already  intimated, 
all  men  should  freely  and  fully  confess  their  sins,  though  a  great 
diversity  of  act"?  would  appear,  and  some  seem  much  more  abomina- 
ble than  others,  I  question  whether  one  heart  would  appear  much 
purer  or  less  selfish  than  another.  I  question  whether  the  principles 
of  sin  would  not  be  found  nearly  the  same  in  all.  Our  Lord  did  not 
make  much  difference  between  the  scribes  and  pharisees  on  one 
hand,  and  the  publicans  and  harlots  on  the  other.  The  pride  and 
h3'pocrisy  of  one  class,  were  as  offensive  to  Ilim  as  the  fraud  and 
pollution  of  the  other.  The  element  of  every  sin  is  in  every  soul. 
Education,  custom,  interest,  and  other  social  restraints,  modify  the 
manifestations  of  sin ;  and  we  cannot  allow  much  more  than  this. 
Let  us,  therefore,  lay  aside  our  reluctance  to  confess.  Surely,  cases 
of  real  self-deception  cannot  be  numerous  !  Surely,  the  most  of  us 
must  know,  that,  instead  of  having  "no  sin,"  we  are  filled  with  sin, 
and  covered  all  over  with  it ! 


426  THE   TWO    COURSES. 

The  Bible  gives  two  definitions  of  sin.  One  is,  "  a  transgression 
of  the  law."  And  what  is  the  law  ?  Take  the  two  great  summary 
commandments — love  to  God  and  our  neighbor.  Who  has  not  trans- 
gressed this  law  ?  Or,  to  be  more  specific,  take  the  Decalogue. 
Reflect  upon  each  of  its  prohibitions.  And  who  has  not  transgressed 
this  law?  Nay,  who  has  not  transgressed  every  prohibition  in  it ? 
"  Oh  !  "  methinks  some  one  exclaims  :  "  that  is  too  hard  !  I,  at  least, 
am  no  thief,  no  liar,  no  mwderer,  no  adulterer ! "  But  is  it  too 
hard  ?  Open  the  Old  Testament  at  the  Decalogue.  .Open  the  New, 
at  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  Compare  the  two.  Apply  the  spiritual 
principles,  the  heart-searching  expositions  of  the  law,  in  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  to  your  own  conscious  history,  and  see  if  it  is  not 
harder  to  tell  what  you  have  not  been,  as  a  sinner,  than  what  you 
have  been!  For  myself — speaking  honestly  in  hope  of  speaking 
usefully — I  could  not  dare  to  say  that  there  is  a  single  moral  pre- 
cept in  all  the  Bible,  the  principle  of  which  I  have  not  violated.  I 
cannot  believe  that  there  is  a  person  present  who  has  not  violated 
the  principle  of  every  moral  law.  It  must  be  so!  Nor  only  so:  but, 
when  we  rcA'iew  our  lives,  from  childhood  to  the  present ;  when  we 
recall  our  overt  acts;  how  many  of  us  must  say — There!  and  there! 
and  the7-e  again  !  if  not  the  fully  developed  crime,  if  not  quite  the 
equivalent  of  the  crime,  still  there  is  a  distinct  remembrance  of 
Something  of  the  same  nature,  and  with  the  same  tendency,  and 
God  alone  is  to  be  praised  that  it  did  not  issue  in  the  complete 
iniquity  !  If  it  had  not  been  for  some  divine  check,  the  devil  would 
have  hurried  us  into  horrors  which  would  long  ago  have  destroyed 
both  body  and  soul  in  hell ! 

But,  to  confirm  our  conviction  of  sin,  we  must  call  up  the  other 
definition  of  it.  I  mean  this :  "  To  him  that  knowetli  to  do  good, 
and  doeth  it  not,  to  him  it  is  sin."  Who  has  not  sinned  in  this  way — 
neglecting  opportunities  of  doing  good?  I  was  about  to  say  that  I 
would  like  to  see  the  man  who  can  stand  up  and  declare  himself  free 
from  this  form  of  sin.  And  yet,  on  reflection,  I  could  not  bear  to 
see  him.  What  an  awful  example  of  self-deception  would  such  an 
apparition  be  ?  Opportunities  of  doing  good  !  Alas,  how  many  we 
neglect  every  day  !  We  see  the  opportunity ;.  know  the  good  that 
is  needed;  know  how  to  do  it;  and  yet  do  it  not.  It  matters  not 
what  prevents :  we  might  do  it,  but  neglect  it,  and  so  it  remains  un- 
done.    0,  if  it  were  not  for  the  frequency  of  this  sin ;  if,  instead  of 


THE   TWO    COURSES.  427 

yielding  to  it,  every  man  improved  every  opportunity  of  doing  good 
to  the  utmost  of  his  power;  what  a  heaven  upon  earth  would  open 
around  us !  But  we  are  poor,  indolent,  uncnergetic,  unsucrificing, 
selfish,  and  self-indulgent  sinners — good-for-nothing  sinners ! 

And  what  now  ?  If  thus,  in  all  connections,  we  know  we  are  sin- 
ners— let  us  confess  our  sins.  But — liow  shall  we  confess  ?  To  the 
priest?  God  forbid!  Never  let  us  be  caught  in  such  a  trap  as  that! 
It  were  far  better  to  confess  to  the  devil;  for  he  could  not  take  such 
advantage  of  the  confession.  "  Confess  your  faults  one  to  another," 
said  St.  James,  '^  and  pray  one  for  another,  that  ye  may  he  healed." 
This  was  written  to  Christians  at  large,  and  probably  refers  to  such 
faults  as  occur  among  those  who  strive  most  to  avoid  faults ;  such  as 
may  be  discreetly  mentioned,  for  mutual  advice,  and  the  holy  influ- 
ence of  united  and  earnest  prayer.  It  gives  no  Christian,  and  espe- 
cially no  priest,  a  right  to  become  an  inquisitor,  even  into  the  faults 
of  a  single  brother — much  less  of  a  whole  church,  male  and  female, 
old  and  young ! 

As  to  sins  committed  hefore  repentance,  the  passage  does  not  ap- 
pear to  refer  to  them  at  all.  They  may,  or  may  not,  be  confessed — 
according  to  circumstances.  Such  confessions  are  matters  of  private 
judgment.  If  they  may  do  good,  if  they  are  required  by  the  princi- 
ples of  righteousness,  if  restitution  be  necessary,  let  the  confession 
be  made,  either  publicly  or  privately,  as  shall  seem  best.  But  if  no 
good  be  promised,  I  See  no  necessity  for  such  confessions,  at  least  of 
private  offences.  Public  offences  are  properly  confessed  in  public. 
So  David  cried,  most  piteously,  "  Deliver  me  from  blood-guiltiness, 
0  God,  thou  God  of  my  salvation!"  And  in  like  manner,  St.  Paul 
wrote  to  Timothy,  that,  before  his  conversion,  he  was  "  a  blasphemer, 
and  a  persecutor,  and  injurious;"  and  so  to  the  Galatians,  that, 
"  beyond  measure  he  persecuted  the  church  of  God  and  wasted  it." 
The  crimes  thus  alluded  to  were  publicly  known,  and  therefore 
properly  repented  of  in  public. 

Even  in  ordinary  cases,  however,  in  addition  to  whatever  special 
acknowledgments  may  be  made  to  parties  concerned  in  fulfilment 
of  righteousness,  every  sinner  should  unhesitatingly  confess  that  he 
is  a  sinner,  and  that,  as  such,  he  needs  the  salvation  which  is  in  Christ 
Jusus.  Instead  of  pretending  that  he  has  no  sin,  he  is  to  be  willing, 
as  a  man  among  men,  to  be  recognised  as  a  sinner. 

But,  pre-eminently,  he  must  confess  to  God.     He  must  remember 


428  THE    TWO   COURSES. 

tlie  holiness  of  God,  the  holiness  of  His  law,  and  His  abhorrence  of 
iniquity.  He  must  also  remember,  that  notwithstanding  God's  for- 
bearance toward  him  for  Christ's  sake,  and  notwithstanding  whatever 
natural  prosperity  he  enjoys,  still,  as  a  sinner,  ^Uhe  lorafh  of  God 
ahideth  on  Mm"  He  must  remember,  also,  how  thoroughly  God 
knows  him,  how  constantly  God  searches  him,  how  responsible  God 
holds  him ;  and,  overwhelmed  by  the  heinousness  and  awfulness  of 
sin,  he  must  confess  his  sins  in  all  their  fulness  and  in  all  their  foul-. 
ness,  and  cast  himself  wholly  on  the  mercy  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  our 
Lord.  Then,  no  longer  attempting  the  slightest  self-deception ;  ad- 
mitting, at  last,  the  whole  truth;  performing  his  first  duty;  in  a 
word,  pursuing  the  right  course,  its  inestimable  advantages  will  im- " 
mediately  follow.  "  If  tve  confess  our  sins,  God  is  faithful  and  just 
to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness." 

Look  at  these  blessings.  Yn's\,— forgiveness  !  God  will  '' forgive 
us  our  sins."  It  matters  not  how  great  our  natural  depravity,  or 
voluntary  iniquity — if  we  confess,  God  will  forgive !  Not  one  charge 
shall  remain  against  us,  in  all  the  book  of  His  remembrance.  We 
shall  stand  in  His  sight  as  freely  and  fully  justified  as  though  we 
had  never  sinned. 

But,  shall  we  Jcnow  that  we  are  forgiven  ?  Well,  it  is  easy  to 
perplex  ourselves  here.  Suppose  we  could  not  know  it.  Still,  if 
forgiven,  we  should  be  as  safe  as  though  we  did  know  it.  Besides, 
we  might  believe  it,  if  we  could  not  knoio  it,  and  it  is  the  distinction 
of  the  Christian,  that  he  walks  "  It/ faith,  not  hy  sight."  But  much 
depends  on  what  is  meant  by  knowing  it.     What,  then,  is  meant  ? 

See  !  here  is  a  sinner  who  has  long  tried  to  deceive  himself  with 
the  notion  that  he  has  no  sin.  Hitherto,  in  this  relation,  there  has 
been  no  truth  in  him.  At  last,  however,  he  is  convinced  that  it  is 
utter  folly,  and  an  aggravation  of  his  guilt,  to  continue  such  a  course. 
Therefore,  accepting  all  that  the  Bible  says,  in  relation  to  sin,  and  the 
Saviour  from  sin,  here — whencesoever  he  comes  and  wheresoever 
he  is  going — herb,  in  the  very  Capitol  of  the  United  States,  and  in 
this  Hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  on  this  holy  sabbath,  the 
\st  day  of  April,  1860,  he  confesses  his  sins,  and  trusts  in  God's 
faithfulness  and  justice  for  the  forgiveness  of  his  sins!  Immediately 
his  conscience  is  relieved.  The  load  of  guilt  is  removed.  He  is 
strangely  light-hearted.  "  The  peace  of  God,  that  passeth  all  under- 
standing," apart  from  experience,  becomes  plain  enough  as  a  matter 


THE   TWO   COURSES.  429 

of  experience.  His  soul  overflows  with  it.  Directly,  passages  of 
Scripture,  often  read  or  heard,  but  never  before  properly  felt,  <;Hde 
into  his  memory,  like  shooting  stars  into  the  sk}',  and  he  exclaims : 
"  O  Lor  J,  I  to  ill  praise  thee  ;  though  fhou  wast  angry  with  me,  thine 
anger  is  turned  away,  and  thou  comfortest  me  !  "  And  then  he  calls 
to  the  church  :  "  Come  iinto  me,  all  ye  that  fear  God,  and  I  will  tell 
you  what  He  hath  done  for  my  soul."  ^^  As  far  as  the  East  is  from 
the  West,  so  far  hath  the  Lord  removed  my  transgressions  from  me." 
Now,  I  know  what  the  apostle  meant  when  he  said :  '•'  Therefore, 
heing  justified  hy  faith,  ice  have  peace  with  God,  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ."  See !  He  knoics  that  he  has  faith  in  Christ — for 
this  is  a  fact  of  consciousness ;  he  knotos  that  he  has  peace  with 
God — for  this  also  is  a  fact  of  consciousness  ;  and,  from  these  facts 
of  consciousness,  he  spontaneously,  irresistibly,  and  undoubtiugly 
infers,  or  believes,  or,  if  you  please,  knoics,  that  he  is  forgiven.  Now, 
is  not  this  enough  ?  Is  it  not  all  that  is  ever  meant  by  knowledge  ? 
We  may  suppose  twenty  years  to  go  by,  and  at  the  end  of  them,  in 
some  Christian  assembly,  or  at  home  on  his  death-bed,  the  still 
happy  believer  declares :  on  the  morning  of  the  first  day  of  April, 
1860,  in  the  Capitol,  at  Washington,  the  Lord  graciously  set  my  soul 
at  liberty.  Before  that  time,  I  had  tried  to  deceive  myself  with  the 
notion  that  I  was  not  a  sinner;  but  then  I  saw  that  all  such  efforts 
were  vain  and  ruinous.  I  saw  and  felt  that  I  was  a  sinner.  I  con- 
fessed my  sins ;  cast  myself,  vile  as  I  was,  on  the  mercy  of  God  in 
Christ  Jesus ;  and,  from  that  time  to  this,  I  have  never  doubted  that 
God  then  forgave  my  sins.  My  heart  was  filled  with  peace,  and  my 
tongue  thrilled  with  the  rapture  of  irrepressible  thanksgiving.  By 
the  greatness  of  my  relief,  and  the  joyfulness  of  my  new  emotions, 
"the  Spirit  of  God"  bore  witness  with  my  spirit,  that  I  was  ''a  child 
of  God." 

Now,  if  this  be  what  is  meant  by  knowing  that  we  are  forgiven, 
certainly  we  may  know  it.  Certainly,  thousands  do  thus  know  it. 
Certainly,  every  confessing  sinner  here  may  thus  know  it.  But  if 
you  go  beyond  this;  if  you  assert  a  distinct,  intelligible,  inspiration 
or  revelation  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  apart  from  the  Bible,  apart  from 
emotional  experience,  and  apart  from  the  conviction  thence  resulting: 
something  equivalent  to  the  inspiration  of  the  prophets,  in  virtue  of 
which  they  were  enabled  to  testify — "  Thus  saith  the  Lord" — if  you 
mean  this,  then  all  I  have  to  say  is,  it  may  be  so ;  but  if  it  he  so,  1 


430  THE   TWO   COURSES. 

have  not  yet  known  it  in  my  own  experience,  and  therefore  cannot 
bear  personal  testimony  to  its  occurrence.  Be  this,  however,  as  it 
may,  the  doctrine  is  clear  and  sure,  that  whosoever  will  confess  his 
sins  shall  be  forgiven,  and  be  unspeakably  safer  and  happier  than  he 
can  be  without  confession.  Therefore,  I  thus  preach  and  urge  con- 
fession. 

But  forgiveness  is  not  the  only  blessing  which  follows  confession. 
See  !  "  If  toe  confess  our  sins,  He  is  faithful  and  Just  to  forgive  us 
our  sins,  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness."-  This  is  a  still 
greater  blessing.  It  relates  not  only  to  the  condition,  but  also  to  the 
character  ;  not  only  to  freedom  from  sin,  but  also  to  renewal  in  holi- 
ness; not  only  to  exemption  from  punishment  for  the  past,  but  also 
to  the  improvement  and  usefulness  of  the  future. 

The  context  declares :  "  This  then  is  the  message  which  we  have 
heard  of  Him,  gnd  declare  unto  you,  that  God  is  light,  and  in  Him 
is  no  darJaicss  at  all.  If  loe  say  that  we  have  felloioship  icith  Him, 
and  walk  in  darJmess,  we  lie,  and  do  not  the  truth :  hut  if  we  walk 
in  the  light,  as  He  is  in  the  light,  we  have  fellowshijy  one  toith  another, 
and  the  hlood  of  Jesus  Christ  His  Son  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin." 

This,  indeed,  is  a  great  and  glorious  work.  This  is  regeneration. 
This  is  xe-creation.  This  is  sanctification.  This,  though  in  some 
cases  commenced,  developed,  and  almost  perfected,  apparently  in  a 
very  short  time,  remains,  nevertheless,  a  life-long  work.  Natural  cor- 
ruption is  destroyed.  Voluntary  wickedness  is  substituted  by  habits 
of  righteousness.  It  becomes  our  second,  better,  and  proper  nature 
to  do  the  will  of  God.  His  law  is  no  longer  knowingly  and  wilfully 
broken.  Its  precepts  are  obeyed;  and  its  principles  held  in  highest 
veneration.  The  Decalogue  is  not  too  strict  for  us  now.  Even  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  not  now  a  whit  too  searching.  The  stand- 
ard of  perfect  love  to  God  and  man  is  not  too  elevated.  Opportuni- 
ties of  doing  good  arc  not  too  frequent.  The  obligations  to  do  good 
are  not  too  stringent;  and  the  satisfaction  of  doing  good  becomes 
infinitely  attractive.  Day  after  day,  he  who  was  once  so  base  a  sin- 
ner, grows  more  and  more  a  saint,  and  assumes  the  image  of  God. 
Wherein  he  remains  infirm,  or  subject  to  error,  or  inadvertently  falls 
into  wrong-doing,  he  is  instantly  prompted  to  confession,  supplica- 
tion, and  correction,  and  proves  that  the  blood  of  Christ  is  still  as 
cleansing  as  ever,  and  doubts  not  that  he  shall  at  last  put  on  the 
wliite  robe  in  heaven,  as  the  symbol  of  entire  and  eternal  redemption. 


THE   TWO   COURSES.  431 

.Such  a  man  is  fully  provided  for — both  as  to  his  condition  iu  this 
world,  and  his  destiny  iu  the  world  to  come.  Having  found  the 
right  course,  he  has  only  to  pursue  it,  with  undeviating  fidelity. 
Whatever  God  has  promised,  for  body  or  soul,  of  grace  or  glory,  on 
earth  or  in  heaven,  the  Christian  is  sure  of  its  fullest  enjoyment. 
He  realizes  his  interest  in  the  sublime  announcement  of  the  apostle : 
"All  things  are  yours;  ivhcther  Paxil,  or  Apollos,  or  Cephas,  or  the 
world,  or  life,  or  death,  or  things  present,  or  things  to  come:  all  are 
yours;  and  ye  are  Christ's;  and  Christ  is  God's." 

To  such  a  man,  the  Bible,  the  world,  and  conscience,  the  history 
of  society  and  the  administration  of  the  government  of  God,  compose 
one  grand  natural  and  moral  harmony,  universal,  perpetual,  and 
divinely  enchanting.  By  the  confession  of  sin,  he  accounts  for  all 
the  past;  and  by  the  securement  of  salvation,  he  anticipates  the 
vindications  of  all  the  future.  Hear  him  narrate  the  perfection  of 
the  beginning!  Hear  him  forecast  the  perfection  of  the  conclusion! 
See  how  God  is  glorified,  and  man  honored,  by  the  whole  contempla- 
tion !  See  how  Christ  shines  forth,  as  all  in  all !  Then  ask  the 
triumphant  believer,  on  what  he  relies  for  the  fulfilment  of  his  hope  ? 
And  hearken  to  his  noble  answer ! 

Do  you  ask  me  on  what  I  rely  for  the  fuljilmcnt  of  my  hope  ?  I 
rejoice  to  tell  you.  I  possess  the  true  solution  of  the  mystery  of  the 
world.  It  is  the  promise  of  God.  I  hope  for  all  that  God  has  prom- 
ised. From  the  origin  of  sin,  He  has  always  promised,  redemption 
from  sin.  And  here,  in  this  text,  both  His  faithfulness  and  Justice 
are  pledged  for  the  performance  of  His  promise.  The  universe  may 
dissolve  as  a  dream ;  but  what  shall  impair  the  faithfulness  or  pervert 
the  justice  of  God?  "  I  wait  for  the  Lord,  my  soul  doth  wait,  and 
in  Sis  Word  do  I  hope.  My  soul  waiteth  for  the  Lord,  more  than 
they  that  watch  for  the  morning.  I  say,  more  than  they  that  watch  for 
the  morning."  The  priest  in  the  temple,  the  invalid  on  his  couch, 
and  the  prisoner  at  his  window,  watch  for  the  morning ;  the  sailor,  the 
soldier,  and  the  hunter,  and  how  many  more,  and  with  how  much  anxi- 
ety, all  watch  for  the  morning.  The  traveller,  especially,  gone  up  the 
day  before,  and  cowering  all  night  among  the  summit  snows  of  the 
Andes,  the  Alps,  or  the  Himalayas,  how  bravely  he  waits,  and  how 
intently  he  watches,  for  the  morning !  He  hopes,  without  a  promise ! 
But,  does  the  sun  disappoint  him  ?  Never !  At  a  certain  hour,  the  black 
zenith  grows  blue  again,  the  gray  east  yellows  into  amber  and  flushes 
with  rose,  innumerable  scintillant  splendo.rs  shoot  through  the  rose 


432  THE    TWO    COURSES. 

and  amber,  and  spread  abroad  in  the  upper  blue,  and,  at  the  min- 
ute— nay, at  the  moment — there  it  flashes!  rim,  half-round,  all-round, 
filling  the  world  with  glory  !  And  the  startled  stars  veil  their  faces, 
and  retire.  The  sky  shows  but  one  light.  The  mountains  put  on 
their  purple  and  gold,  and  pay  princely  obeisance.  The  living  tor- 
rents catch  the  living  lustre,  and  leap  with  it  into  a  thousand  wel- 
coming valleys.  From  coast  to  coast,  the  billowy  seas  uplift  their 
jewelled  arms,  and  clap  their  hands  for  joy.  And  the  soul  of  the  trav- 
eller, the  greatest  thing  in  all  the  scene,  infinitely  greater  than  the  sun 
itself,  looks  out  through  the  calm  eyes  of  his  little  body,  lost  like  a 
snow-flake  among  the  cliff's,  with  tremulous  tongue  modulates  the  thiu 
air  into  the  instant  music  and  rapture  of  thanksgiving,  and  charms  his 
Maker,  and  blesses  his  race,  with  the  renewal  of  the  angels'  song,  "  Glo- 
ry to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth  peace,  goodwill  toivard  men!  " 

And  what  now?  '^  I  wait,"  not  for  the  sun,  but  "/o7-  the  Lord: 
my  sold  doth  wait,  and  in  His  Word  do  I  hope."  I  wait  with '  tho 
promise !  "  My  soul  waiteth  for  the  Lord,  more  than  they  that  watch 
for  the  morning;  I  say,  more  than  they  that  watch  for  the  morning" — 
more  intensely,  more  confidently,  aud  with  infinitely  more  glorious  ex- 
pectations !  And  shall  He  who  made  the  sun  be  less  punctual  than 
the  sun  itself?  Is  the  coming  of  the  Lord  less  certain  than  the  sun- 
rise ?  Nevei* !  no,  never !  The  day,  the  hour,  the  moment,  is  ap- 
pointed, and  nothing  can  delay  it.  Then  He,  who  is  "  the  brightness 
of  the  Father^ s  glory,  and  the  express  image  of  His  person" — who, 
for  the  present,  is  detained  at  the  "right  hand"  of  God  "in  the 
heavenly  places,  far  above  all  principality,  and  power,  and  might,  and 
dominion,  and  every  name  that  is  named,  not  only  in  this  world,  hut 
also  in  that  which  is  to  come ;  "  and  who,  as  He  is  beloved  of  the 
Father,  and  adored  and  worshipped  by  saints  and  angels  in  heaven, 
is  still  "  the  desire  of  all  nations  "  on  earth — will  "  appear,  ^he  second 
time,  ivithout  sin,  unto  salvation;  "  not  tinting  the  earth,  and  seas,  and 
skies,  with  the  transient  beauty  of  the  sunrise,  but  raising  the  dead, 
changing  the  living,  judging  the  world,  glorifying^  His  people,  re- 
creating heaven  and  earth,  and  establishing  His  everlasting  kingdom 
of  "  righteousness,  peace,  and  Joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost." 

Come,  then,  ye  sinners  !  one  and  all ;  come,  and  make  confession. 
Remember !  "  If  we  say'that  loe  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  ourselves,  and 
the  truth  is  not  in  us;  "  but,  "  if  we  confess  our  sins,  He  is  faithful  and 
Just  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness." 


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THE    CURISTIAN    MINISTER   AND    HIS   WORK.  485 

opinion  was  neither  affectedly  humble,  ou  the  one  hand,  nor  senti- 
mentally morbid,  on  the  other.  It  was  the  simple,  truthful,  and 
healthful  result  of  his  religious  consciousness. 

On  what  grounds,  it  may  be  inquired,  could  he  honestly  entertain 
such  an  opinion  of  himself?  We  answer,  on  several.  First,  he  con- 
sidered himself  to  have  been,  previously  to  his  conversion,  "  the 
chief  of  sinners,"  especially  on  account  of  his  bigoted  and  malignant 
persecution  of  the  early  church ;  a  crime  which,  at  no  period  of  his 
subsequent  history,  he  could  either  forget  or  forgive.  He  ever  re- 
called it  as  a  reproach  which  no  repentance  and  no  zeal  could  efface. 
Secondly,  the  condition  of  any  man,  as  an  awakened  sinner,  and  the 
terms  on  which  he  is  saved,  are  such  as  necessarily  to  produce  in 
him  the  spirit  of  total  self-abnegation  in  the  sight  of  God.  Ffom 
this  stand-point  he  must  inevitably  contemplate  himself,  and  from 
it  make  all  his  comparisons  with  his  fellow  Christians.  Thirdly, 
the  more  enlightened  any  one  becomes  by  the  grace  of  God,  the 
clearer  are  his  discoveries  of  the  depth  of  his  degradation,  and  the 
extent  of  his  indebtedness  to  divine  mercy;  and  though  these  dis- 
coveries may,  in  reality,  be  no  greater  in  him  than  in  other.'?,  they 
must  of  necessity  always  appear  so  to  himself,  since  it  is  not  possible 
for  any  one  to  know  another  in  the  same  sense,  or  to  the  same  de- 
gree, in  which  it  is  possible  to  know  himself.  Consequently,  no 
Christian  can  give  a  strictly  accurate  opinion  of  himself,  without  de- 
preciating himself,  with  perfect  sincerity,  below  any.  other  true  mem- 
ber of  the  church  of  God ;  without,  in  the  very  words  of  this  apostle, 
"  esteeming  others  better  than  himself."  Fourthly,  Paul's  idea  of 
his  inferiority,  as  a  Christian,  was  greatly  intensified  by  the  over- 
whelming majesty  of  his  commission  as  an  apostle;  for  which,  it  ap- 
peared to  him,  an  angel  would  not  have  been  sufficient,  much  less  so 
sinful  and  imperfect  a  being  as  himself.  This  allusion  he  evidently 
makes  in  the  language  before  us. 

These  several  reasons,  to  adduce  no  others,  fully  sustain  the  fitness 
and  propriety  of  Paul's  apprehension  of  himself;  and  it  affords  a 
most  useful  lesson  to  all  Christians,  and  particularly  to  all  Christian 
ministers.  The  true  and  the  only  standard  of  self-estimation,  to 
both,  is  absolute  humility.  "lie  that  humbleth  himsel]',"  says 
Christ,  ''shall  be  exalted,  and  he  that  exalteth  himself  shall  be 
abased."  What  a  rebuke  arc  these  words  to  our  pride ;  to  that 
ambition  which  induces  one  "  to  think  of  himself  more  highly  than 


486  THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTER   AND   HIS   WORK. 

he  ought  to  think ; "  to  desire  notoriety  amongst  his  brethren ;  to 
seek  places  of  preferment  and  of  honor  in  the  church  of  Christ ;  to 
inhale  with  complacency  the  breath  of  popular  applause ;  to  listen 
•with  self-gratulation  to  the  accents  of  human  devotion.  Great  God  ! 
if  Paul,  the  very  seraph  of  apostles,  fulfilling  Heaven's  high  em- 
bassy to  the  world,  should  con«ider  himself  "  less  than  the  least  of 
all  saints/'  what  are  we  doing  when,  in  our  subordinate  offices,  with 
our  contracted  capacities,  and  our  mere  fraction  of  piety,  we  are  so- 
liciting to  ourselves  the  admiration  of  all  mankind  !  Erom  these  re- 
flections, we  proceed  to  notice  ; 

II.  The  apostle's  estimate  of  his  commission.  A  remarka- 
ble contrast  arrests  our  attention  here.  When  speaking  of  himself, 
he  sinks  into  nothing.  When  speaking  of  his  commission,  he  cannot 
sufficiently  magnify  it.  His  opinion  of  the  latter  is  comprised  in  no 
specific  form  of  words,  but  in  the  exhibition  of  those  grand  objects 
which  the  commission  itself  contemplates.  We  shall  endeavor  to 
develop  his  idea  from  those  objects.     Amongst  them  we  consider, 

1.  The  publication  of  the  Gospel,  as  foremost  j  its  authoritative 
declaration  to  mankind.  "  Unto  me,"  says  he,  ''  is  this  grace  given, 
that  I  should  preach  amongst  the  Gentiles."  To  preach  is  necessa- 
rily the  first  and  principal  design  of  the  great  commission.  The 
Gospel  is  God's  message  of  mercy  to  the  world.  It  must  be  pro- 
claimed, as  such,  in  the  hearing  of  the  world.  And  this  can  be 
legitimately  and  eflPectually  done  only  when  proclaimed  by  divine 
authority  and  with  unadulterated  simplicity.  The  preacher  is  God's 
ambassador,  and  must  treat  with  men,  on  God's  behalf,  according  to 
the  tenor  of  his  instructions.  In  discharging  this  function,  he  is 
invested  with  an  awful  responsibility;  a  responsibility  to  which  there 
is  none  equal  on  earth;  none  greater  in  heaven.  It  is  not,  however, 
with  the  office  which  the  Christian  minister  holds,  that  we  are  con- 
cerned to-day.  It  is  with  the  proper  appreciation  of  the  message 
which  he  bears;  "  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ." 

By  "  the  riches  of  Christ,"  we  are  not  to  understapd,  I  suppose, 
his  personal  excellence  and  wealth  as  the  Lord  and  heir  of  all 
things.  These  are  sublimely  described  in  the  Scriptures ;  pertain 
inalienably  to  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Kedeemer  of  man- 
kind, and  for  his  glory  must  be  asserted  in  our  sermons.  For  ex- 
ample, "  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with 
God,  and  the  Word  was  God;"  ''The  Word  was  made  flesh,  and 


THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTER   AND   HIS  WORK.  437 

dwelt  among  us,  and  we  beheld  his  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only 
begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth;"  "In  him  dwelleth 
all  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily ;  "  "  By  him  were  all  things 
created,  that  are  in  heaven,  and  that  are  in  earth,  visible  and  invisible, 
whether  they  be  thrones,  or  dominions,  or  principalities,  or  powers  j 
all  things  were  created  by  him  and  for  him  3  and  he  is  before  all 
things,  and  by  him  all  things  consist."  These,  indeed,  are  the  riches 
of  Christ;  the  riches  of  his  perfections  and  of  his  dominion.  But  we 
are  not,  I  presume,  to  understand  these  as  referred  to  in  our  text. 
Wc  are  to  understand  the  riches  of  redemption;  the  blessings  of  grace 
and  the  rewards  of  glory,  originating  from  and  summed  up  in  Christ; 
which  he  has  purchased  by  his  death,  and  which  he  confers  upon 
his  people.  By  these  they  are  enriched  with  all  spiritual  posses- 
sions in  this  life,  and  an  eternal  inheritance  of  bliss  in  the  life  to 
come. 

These  "  riches,"  the  text  affirms,  are  "  unsearchable ; "  not  in  the 
sense,  as  already  intimated,  that  they  cannot,  in  any  degree,  be  as- 
certained or  enjoyed  by  the  people  of  God  on  earth;  not  that  they 
lie  beyond  the  sphere  of  immediate  participation ;  not  that  they  re- 
pose in  some  distant  and  unapproachable  region  of  the  universe, 
where,  if  ever,  after  ages  of  pursuit,  they  may  be  discovered.  No, 
my  brethren,  this  is  not  the  character  of  these  riches.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  are  present  and  accessible  to  all.  They  oflfer  now  their 
matchless  resources  to  the  wretched  sons  of  want,  and  impart  to  the 
humble  recipient  a  whole  kingdom  of  "righteousness,  and  peace, 
and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  Yet,  unlike  all  human  possessions, 
beyond  any  possible  degree  of  existing  appropriation,  however  copious 
or  costly,  their  stores  are  enhanced  by  a  "  length  and  breadth,  a  depth 
and  height"  of  abundance  and  of  fruition  to  be  calculated  only  by 
the  rule  of  an  infinite  progression.  They  are,  so  to  speak,  inex- 
haustible in  their  quantity.  No  demands  and  no  participation  of 
earth's  redeemed  multitudes,  through  an  endless  futurity,  can  lessen, 
for  an  instant,  the  sum  of  spiritual  and  celestial  treasures.  The 
wealth  of  empires  may  be  wasted  or  dispersed ;  the  restless  hand  of 
human  enterprise,  or  the  insatiable  rapacity  of  human  avarice,  may 
sweep  the  subterranean  repositories,  in  which  nature  hoards  her  se- 
lectest  minerals,  of  their  last  shining  particles ;  but  "  the  riches  of 
Christ"  will,  after  cycles  of  immeasurable  acquisition,  continue  to 
present  to  the  saints,  the  boon  of  an  undiminished  plenitude. 


438  THE   CHRISTIAN    MINISTER   AND    HIS   WORK. 

''  The  riches  of  Christ "  are,  likewise,  incalculable  in  their  worth. 
In  the  estimation  of  wealth,  value  must  be  added  to  quantity. 
Quantity  without  value  would  be  an  encumbrance.  The  real  esti- 
mate of  an  estate  does  not  consist  of  its  amount,  but  of  the  advantages 
which  it  confers,  whether  of  pleasure  or  profit.  Nevertheless,  the 
most  valuable  of  all  earthly  possessions  include  in  their  catalogues 
many  portions  both  useless  and  defective.  ''  The  riches  of  Christ " 
are  all  equally  precious,  and  have  an  excellence  which  even  trans- 
cends the  idea  of  their  quantity.  No  standard  of  appreciation  can 
determine  their  value.  No  numbers,  no  symbols,  can  represent  it. 
No  balances  can  weigh,  no  capacity  contain,  no  line  can  fathom  it. 
These  "riches"'  cost  the  highest  price  known  in  all  transactions, 
human  or  divine;  they  consist  of  the  purest  and  the  best  blessings 
in  the  magazine  of  grace ;  they  impart  the  richest  good  of  which  the 
immortal  constitution  of  man  is  susceptible.  In  a  word,  they  invest 
him  with  the  permanent  and  imperishable  fortune  of  a  nature  renewed 
in  the  image  of  God,  and  of  conditions  and  agencies  perpetually  ad- 
ministering to  its  development  and  augmenting  its  bliss. 

"  The  riches  of  Christ "  are  also  incomprehensible  in  their  extent. 
Their  amplitude  confounds  not. only  our  ideas  of  quantity  and  quality, 
but  of  space.  They  spread  over  an  illimitable  surface.  They  are 
diffused  over  a  territory  of  sanctified  existence  untravelled  and  unex- 
plored; nay,  whose  exploration  will  never  be  fully  accomplished. 
No  foot  of  saint,  no  wing  of  angel,  can  reach  the  boundary  of  that 
kingdom  which  Christ  has  purchased  and  replenished  for  his  people. 
No  seraphic  voyager  will  ever  circumnavigate  its  ocean  of  delights ; 
no  flaming  adventurer  ever  scale  its  pinnacles  of  glory;  no  inspired 
speculations,  no  glorified  imaginations,  will  conceive  of  those  blessed 
distances  which  will  ever  open  their  attractive  avenues  to  the  enrap- 
tured progress  and  contemplation  of  the  elect  of  God.  ^s  it  is 
written,  and  as  it  will  remain,  in  a  higher  sense,  forever  true,  "  eye 
hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither  have  entered  into  the  heart  of 
man,  the  things  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  tjiat  love  him." 
These  "  unsearchable  riches "  of  Christ ;  this  wealth  of  grace ; 
this  "  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory ; "  it  is  the 
prerogative,  the  duty,  the  honor,  of  the  Christian  ministry  to  offer, 
in  the  name  of  the  great  Proprietor,  as  a  sovereign  gratuity  to  an 
impoverished  world,  that  it  may  become  their  inheritance  in  time 
and  in  eternity. 


THE   CimiSTIAN   MINISTER   AND    HIS    WORK.  439 

2.  Auother  object,  of  scarcely  less  importance,  contemplated  by 
the  Christian  ministry,  is  the  vindication  of  the  Gospel.  It  is  "to 
make  all  men  see  what  is  the  fellowship  of  the  mystery,  which,  from 
the  beginning  of  the  world,  hath  been  hid  in  God/'  The  Gospel 
economy  is,  in  the  loftiest  sense,  a  mystery ;  a  mystery  in  itself,  and 
in  its  successive  evolutions.  The  origin  and  the  purposes  of  it  ap- 
pertain exclusively  to  the  unfathomable  depths  of  the  divine  coun- 
sels, and,  though  partially  disclosed  in  the  lapse  of  ages,  it  will, 
nevertheless,  remain  to  finite  beings  a  mystery  still. 

In  the  course  of  human  events,  it  must  inevitably  be  assailed  by 
objections  arising  from  alleged  and  even  apparent  discordances  with 
itself  and  with  the  constitution  of  the  world.  From  these  aspersions 
of  its  integrity  as  a  system,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Christian  ministry 
to  defend  it ;  to  demonstrate  its  harmony  and  consistency,  not  only 
to  silence  objectors,  but  to  elevate  the  conceptiods  of  mankind  re- 
specting that  wonderful  arrangement  by  which  the  affluence  of  divine 
benevolence  is  so  conspicuously  displayed.  And  it  is  worthy  of 
special  remark,  that  the  wisdom  of  the  divine  economy  is  eminently 
capable  of  proof.  It  can  be  shown,  by  incontestable  evidence,  that 
the  assumed  contradictions  are  the  distortions  of  perverted  reason, 
and  not  the  deductions  of  sober  truth.  It  is  an  undoubted  fact,  that 
"  all  men,"  who  will,  may  "  be  made  to  see,"  may  be  constrained  to 
acknowledge  "the  fellowship  of  the  mystery;"  the  harmony  of  the 
Gospel.  The  Gospel,  my  brethren,  is  full  of  harmony.  There  are 
no  discordances  in  it.  We  adduce  several  instances,  for  the  purpose 
of  showing  the  truth  of  this  assertion. 

It  is  in  harmony  with  the  perfections  of  God.  All  the  represent- 
ations of  the  divine  character  which  it  gives,  and  all  the  legitimate 
influence  which  it  exerts,  correspond  with  whatever  enlightened 
ideas  men,  in  every  age,  have  entertained  of  Gcd.  It  has,  it  is  true, 
indefinitely  unfolded  the  divine  character;  it  has  copiously  supple- 
mented the  intuitions  and  the  inferences  of  reason,  but  it  has  never 
once  contradicted  them.  The  God  of  the  Gospel  and  the  God  of 
Nature  are  demonstrably  one  and  the  same. 

It  is  in  harmony  with  the  intellectual  constitution  of  man.  God 
has  implanted  certain  faculties  in  the  human  mind,  and  imposed 
upon  it  established  laws  of  ratiocination,  in  the  exercise  of  which  it 
may  reach,  with  sufficient  satisfaction,  such  conclusions,  on  the  great 
questions  of  existence,  as  come  within  the  sphere  of  its  operations. 


440  THE    CHRISTIAN   MINISTER   AND    HIS   WORK. 

The  teaching  of  the  Gospel  is  in  accordance  with  these  laws.  It 
violates  none  of  them.  If  it  seem  to  do  it,  the  fault  is  in  its  super- 
ficial apprehension,  and  not  in  its  inherent  contrariety.  Rightly 
understood,  its  whole  economy  receives  the  unqualified  approval  of 
an  unprejudiced  judgment.  What  an  unspeakable  advantage  the 
knowledge  of  this  fact  gives  to  a  minister  of  the  Gospel !  What  a 
noble  consolation  is  it  to  him  to  know  that  the  understandings  of  his 
hearers  are  on  the  side  of  his  message }  that  he  carries  their  convic- 
tions, if  he  cannot  sway  their  hearts. 

It  is  in  harmony  with  the  moral  condition  of  man.  Its  adapta- 
tions, in  this  respect,  are  manifestly  perfect.  Whatever  man's  moral 
nature  may  have  originally  been,  its  present  state  is  not  a  subject  of 
doubt.  Guilt,  depravity,  and  wretchedness,  are  its  invariable  and 
melancholy  features,  certified  not  only  by  universal  history,  but  by 
universal  consciousness.  With  these  painful  aspects  of  humanity, 
the  Gospel  corresponds  with  an  exactness  which  proves  its  divine 
authority.  To  guilt,  it  brings  forgiveness ;  to  depravity,  holiness ; 
and  to  wretchedness,  peace  and  hope.  It  heals  man's  moral  distem- 
pers, and  restores  the  counterpart  which  he  lost  in  the  dislocation  of 
the  fall. 

It  is  in  harmony  with  itself.  Skeptical  perversity  has  enjoyed  a 
malignant  pleasure  in  endeavoring  to  render  the  Gospel  self-contra- 
dictory ;  to  impair  its  credit  by  verbal  and  doctrinal  discrepancies. 
Such  rejoicing,  however,  is  vain.  From  beginning  to  end,  in 
substance  and  in  form,  in  doctrine  and  in  narrative,  theWord  of 
God  is,  and  has  a  thousand  times  been  proven  to  be,  one  grand 
totality  of  truth,  evincing  the  utterances  and  the  plans  of  one  and 
the  same  eternal  Spirit. 

It  is  in  harmony  with  its  own  successive  developments.  It  was 
not  communicated  to  the  world  all  at  once  and  entire,  but  by  a  con- 
nected and  expanding  series,  in  which  the  germ  unfolded  itself  into 
the  flower.  In  these  gradations  there  is  no  disagreement,  but  the 
most  beautiful  regularity.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  apostle 
refers  here  particularly  to  that  part  of  the  divine  economy  which 
originally  restricted  its  blessings  to  the  Jews,  but  which  now,  re- 
moving the  restriction,  ofiers  them,  without  discrimination,  to  the 
world.  This  is  one  of  its  greatest  peculiarities,  and  it  is  one  of  its 
greatest  harmonies.  Mankind,  in  the  earlier  period  of  their  history, 
were  not  prepared  to  appreciate  the  truth  in  its  fullness.     It  must 


THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTER   AND   HIS   WORK.  441 

needs  have  been  gradually  revealed,  and  its  first  communications  re- 
quired to  be  fostered  within  the  limited  enclosure  of  a  family,  and 
then  of  a  nation,  that,  thus  attaining  its  maturity,  it  might  become 
the  heritage  of  all  nations  and  of  all  time.  So  far,  then,  from  being 
impugned  on  this  ground,  it  only  demonstrates  that  uniformity  which 
is  inseparable  from  the  adjustment  of  the  Gospel,  on  a  universal 
scale,  to  the  nature  and  the  progress  of  human  society.  I  repeat, 
that  the  Gospel  is  full  of  harmony,  and  that  it  behooves  all  ministers 
to  show,  and  all  men  to  see,  ''  the  fellowship  of  its  mystery." 

3.  Yet  another  object,  as  indicated  by  our  text,  is  contemplated 
by  the  Christian  ministry  j  and  that  is,  the  organization  and  the  col- 
lection of  the  accredited  results  of  the  Gospel  into  the  bosom  of  the 
church.  Results,  glorious  results,  will  follow  well-directed  efforts. 
God  will  "give  the  increase."  The  kingdom  of  Christ  will  be 
established  on  the  earth.  These  trophies  of  the  Cross  are  not  to  be 
left  scattered  at  random  on  the  field  on  which  they  are  won.  They 
must  be  gathered  into  the  living  temple  of  Christianity.  These 
sheaves  must  not  be  allowed  to  lie  exposed  on  the  soil  on  which  they 
are  cut  down.  They  must  be  garnered  in  their  appointed  repository. 
The  conquests  of  the  Gospel  must  be  brought  and  arranged  in  its 
own  consecrated  citadel.  In  a  word,  converted  souls  must  be  intro- 
duced into  the  fellowship  of  the  church  militant,  to  be  cherished 
and  trained  for  the  fellowship  of  the  church  triumphant,  that  the 
labor  of  the  ministry  may  not  be  lost,  and  that  the  concentrated 
power  of  Christianity  may  achieve  results  still  more  illustrious.  Min- 
isters must  consequently  become  pastors  as  well  as  teachers,  and  not 
rest  in  their  pulpit  successes,  however  flattering. 

4.  The  ultimate  object  contemplated  by  God  in  the  institution  of 
the  Christian  ministry,  as  announced  by  our  apostle,  is  of  a  very 
different  kind.  It  is  to  promote  the  happiness  of  the  higher  orders 
of  intelligences  J  and  thus  to  combine,  within  the  range  of  redeeming 
beneficence,  the  entire  population  of  holy  beings,  whether  in  heaven 
or  Oia  earth.  The  economy  of  redemption,  though  primarily  designed 
and  especially  adjusted  to  rescue  and  restore  fallen  humanity,  has 
other  aspects  and  other  capabilities,  and  actually  exercises  other  in- 
fluences than  those  which  belong  to  sinful  mortals.  It  is  not  iso- 
lated. It  is  a  blessing  to  the  universe.  Such,  we  distinctly  learn, 
was  the  plan  of  God  in  its  projection.  It  is  "  according  to  the 
eternal  purpose  which  he  purposed  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,"  that 


442  THE   CHRISTIAN    MINISTER   AND    HIS   WORK. 

thus  it  should  operate.  And  this  purpose  of  imparting  to  all  orders 
of  holy  beings  the  beneficial  results  of  redemption,  corresponds  with 
the  original  unity  of  those  orders  in  their  creation ;  since  God  not 
only  redeemed  man,  but  also  *'  created  all  things  by  Jesus  Christ." 
Notwithstanding  the  difference  in  nature  and  condition  between  un- 
fallen  angels  and  fallen  man,  he  who  redeemed  the  latter  made  both, 
and  holds  to  each  the  common  relation  of  Creator  and  benefactor. 
That  sovereign  act,  therefore,  which  saves  a  sinful  world,  could  not 
fail  to  embrace,  in  the  radiant  circle  of  its  benefits,  those  other  beings 
whom  he  created,  and  whom  he  so  highly. endowed,  but  who  did 
not  forfeit  their  primeval  purity.  Hence,  the  unity  of  the  higher 
orders  of  intelligences  with  man,  by  the  act  of  creation,  is  the  ground 
of  that  unity  of  purpose  in  the  ultimate  results  of  redemption,  of 
•which  our  text  speaks  in  the  following  terms  :  "  To  the  intent  that 
now  unto  the  principalities  and  powers  in  heavenly  places,  might  be 
known  by  the  church  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God."  With  an  hum- 
ble endeavor  to  delineate  this  last  aspect  of  our  subject,  we  shall  have 
accomplished  our  task. 

We  learn  from  these  oracular  words,  that  somewhere  in  the  vast 
universe  there  are  abodes  of  light  and  life,  called  "  heavenly  places," 
far  superior  to  our  own  in  the  character  of  their  provisions  and  the 
profusion  of  their  embellishments.  Perhaps,  there  are  myriads  of 
such  places,  diversified  in  magnitude  and  beauty  by  the  endless  con- 
trivances of  infinite  skill.  Not  improbably,  some  of  those  "  heavenly 
places  "  are.  the  stars,  whose  remote  spaces  and  brilliant  orbs  do  not 
contradict  our  ideas  of  heaven  itself.  We  also  learn,  from  a  source 
which  has  anticipated,  by  centuries,  the  conjectures  of  astronomy, 
that  those  ''  heavenly  places,"  wherever  located,  arc  inhabited  by 
families  of  intelligent  beings,  who  retain  their  primitive  perfection, 
and  rejoice  and  flourish  in  the  maturity  and  goodliness  of  upsullied 
virtue.  Their  rank  in  the  scale  of  the  creation  is  very  exalted. 
They  are  not  the  commonalty,  but  the  native  aristocracy  of  the  king- 
dom of  God.  They  are  "  the  principalities  and  powers  in  heavenly 
places  -J "  celestial  princes  and  potentates,  filling  their  honored 
stations,  and  clothed  with  the  splendors  of  their  imperial  ofiices. 
By  virtue  of  their  endowments,  position,  and  advantages,  for  thou- 
sands of  years,  their  attainments  in  knowledge  necessarily  surpass 
and  confound  all  human  standards.  They  are  the  intellectual  mag- 
nates of  the  creation,  whose  easy  and  ready  intuitions  pour  contempt 


THE    CimiSTIAN   MINISTER   AND   HIS   WORK.  443 

upon  that  learning  and  philosophy  which  are  the  boast  of  our  age. 
To  what  perspicacity  of  vision ;  to  what  an  elevation  of  thought,  have 
they  arrived !  And  yet  they  are  ever  making  new  accessions  to 
their  stock  of  information,  by  the  ardor  of  their  studies  and  pur- 
suits. 

The  highest  lesson  which  they  learn,  our  text  informs  us,  is  not 
on  the  wide  and  magnificent  theatre  of  God's  handiworks  about  and 
above  them,  but  on  the  lower  level  of  the  earth  beneath  them.  Our 
world,  physically  considered,  is  but  a  diminutive  and  insignificant 
speck;  is  comparatively  lost  amidst  the  multitudinous  glories  of  the 
Creator's  dominions.  But  it  is  the  scene  of  events  which  magnify 
and  immortalize  it  into  universal  importance.  Yes,  this  contracted 
habitation  of  ours,  placed  in  the  balances  of  the  eternal  sanctuary, 
outweighs  in  value  all  other  worlds  put  together.  It  is  not  the  size 
of  a  place  which  makes  it  memorable.  The  deeds  performed  upon 
it  consecrate  it  to  posterity.  It  was  not  the  size  of  Thermopylae, 
of  Marathon,  of  Waterloo,  of  Bunker  Hill,  or  of  Yorktown,  that 
has  given  them  a  perpetual  notoriety.  Few  localities  have  less  of 
natural  attraction.  It  was  the  sublime  valor  and  the  pending  issues 
concentrated,  for  the  moment,  within  their  narrow  limits.  So  it  is 
with  respect  to  our  earth  in  the  system  of  unnumbered  worlds.  It 
has  been  dignified  above  all  others,  by  a  transaction  which  has  in- 
vested it  with  boundless  interest,  and  rendered  it  an  exciting  specta- 
cle to  their  admiring  throngs.  That  transaction  i.?  the  economy  of 
redemption,  as  it  has  been  enacted  and  embodied  in  the  church  of 
God.  Here  alone  has  it  been  executed  in  all  its  solemn  and  afi'cct- 
ing  details.  Here  alone  its  august  preliminai'ies  were  settled.  Here 
alone  the  advent  of  the  eternal  Son  transpired.  Here  alone  dwelt 
"  the  only  begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth."  Here 
alone  the  incarnate  God  acted  and  spoke.  Here  alone  did  he  ofier, 
in  his  adorable  person,  that  "sacrifice  for  sin  which  forever  perfects 
them  that  are  sanctified."  And  hence  alone  did  he  return  to  "  the 
heavens  which  have  received  him  until  the  times  of  the  restitution  of 
all  things."  No  other  spot  records  such  a  history,  or  offers  its  com- 
petition for  such  renown.  It  has  been  nobly  and  eloquently  said,  that 
"  our  solar  system  is  the  Judea  of  the  universe,  and  our  insignificant 
earth  the  Bethlehem  of  this  holy  land ; "  that,  under  the  Gospel 
economy,  the  solar  system  bears  to  all  other  systems  the  same  moral 
relations  which  Judea  bore  to  the  world,  and  that  the  world  now 


444  THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTER  AND   HIS   WORK. 

bears  the  same  moral  relations  to  the  solar  system  that  Bethlehem  bore 
to  Judea.  The  battle,  the  victory,  the  monuments  of  redemption,  are 
identified  with  the  annals  of  earth,  and  will  forever  emblazon  its 
fame. 

On  these  accounts,  the  church  on  earth  becomes  not  only  the  re- 
pository, but  the  mirror  which,  by  its  history,  its  memorials,  and  its 
triumphs,  reflects  "  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God "  from  earth  to 
heaven ;  and  reflects  it  as  no  other  medium  possibly  can.  Creative 
wisdom  appears  as  richly,  perhaps,  in  more  exquisite  and  gorgeous 
forms,  in  other  and  distant  realms  of  existence,,  in  which  we  may  well 
suppose  its  treasures  are  lavished.  It  was  reserved  for  the  church,  by 
means  of  the  economy  of  redemption,  to  display  the  wisdom  of  God  in 
a  new  light,  in  a  grander  variety  of  methods,  and  in  more  illustrious 
degrees,  through  the  amazing  instrumentalities  which  have  been  em- 
ployed and  the  multiplied  ends  which  have  been  accomplished  by 
that  economy. 

Into  this  resplendent  mirror,  "  the  principalities  and  powers  in 
heavenly  places,"  bending  from  their  thrones,  perpetually  gaze, 
"  desiring  to  look  into "  the  bottomless  mysteries  which  it  reflects. 
To  them  the  church,  as  the  receptacle  of  the  wonders  of  grace,  as  the 
focus  of  the  divine  perfections,  is  an  object  full  of  attractions.  It 
arrests  and  rivets  their  rapt  attention,  more  than  the  scenes  and  as- 
sociations of  their  imperial  palaces.  They  are  the  vigilant  spectators 
of  its  fortunes,  the  ardent  students  of  its  lessons,  and  the  willing 
instruments  of  its  progress.  Throughout  their  bright  gradations, 
they  witness  with  transport  its  successive  approximations  to  that 
eventful  period  when  "  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  shall  become  the 
kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ." 

Nor  do  they  merely  enjoy  the  gratification  of  a  hallowed  curiosity. 
They  participate  in  the  moral  efi'ects  of  the  economy  of  redemption. 
They  are  benefitted  by  the  spectacle  which  they  behold.  Their 
superior  natures  glow  with  additional  fervor  at  the  marvellous  revela- 
tions which  rise  to  their  sight.  Their  conceptions  o^  that  God  in 
whose  presence  they  have  always  stood,  are  indefinitely  expanded ; 
their  virtues,  long  trained  by  celestial  vocations,  receive  a  holier 
impulse ;  and  the  anthem  of  their  praise,  which  .was  struck  on  the 
morning  of  the  world's  creation,  reaches  its  climax  at  the  announce- 
ment of  the  world's  salvation,  "as  it  were  the  voice  of  a  great 
multitude,  and  as  the  voice  of  many  waters,  and  as  the  voice  of 


THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTER   AND   HIS  WORK.  445 

mighty  thunderings,  saying,  Alleluia :  for  the  Lord  God  omnipotent 
reigneth." 

It  is  now  time  to  draw  these  reflections  to  a  close,  and  to  apply 
them,  in  some  sort,  to  the  circumstances  by  which  we  are  surrounded. 

1.  What  this  whole  subject  inculcates,  with  its  entire  weight,  is 
the  cultivation  of  humility  in  Christian  ministers.  What  a  pre- 
sumption, what  a  distortion,  what  a  curse,  is  pride  in  those  who  bear 
from  God  to  their  fellow  men  "  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ." 
What  a  startling  caricature  is  he  who,  coming  as  God's  ambassador, 
exhibits  his  person  and  displays  his  talents  for  the  admiration  of  his 
iearers;  who  arrogates  to  himself  the  importance  of  his  position, 
and  converts  the  ministry  into  the  means  of  his  own  aggrandize- 
ment; who,  instead  of  fulfilling  his  commission  with  scrupulous  fidel- 
ity, is  anxious  that  he  may  be  considered  the  greatest  of  preachers^ 
and  desei-ving  the  principal  honors  of  the  church.  Such  was  not 
Paul.  Such  may  we  never  be.  On  the  other  hand,  what  a  charm, 
what  a  happiness,  is  there  in  true  humility !  We  can  enter  into  the 
spirit  of  our  work  in  no  other  way.  It  is  the  appropriate  garb  of  a 
minister  of  Christ.  It  is  the  fundamental  condition  of  his  enjoyment. 
Above  all,  it  is  the  sanctified  source  of  his  power.  There  lies  the 
secret  of  his  success.  "  When  I  am  weak,"  exclaimed  Paul,  "then 
am  I  strong."  When,  in  our  own  eyes,  we  are  "  less  than  the  least 
of  all  saints,"  then  are  we,  in  the  eyes  of  God,  the  greatest  in  the 
Gospel  kingdom ;  then  does  "  Christ  work  in  us  mightily ; "  then 
does  he  give  "  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of  power"  to  our 
preaching.  Oh,  "when  upon  our  knees  before  God,  crushed  with  a 
sense  of  our  sins,  imperfections,  and  disqualifications,  we  wrestle  in 
an  agony  of  prayer  for  his  blessing,  and  then  go  forth  to  meet  the 
people  in  the  gate,  then  God  goes  with  us ;  then  "  the  Word  of  the 
Lord  has  free  course,  and  is  glorified ; "  then  is  it  made  "  the  power 
of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth."  Let  us  not,  my 
brethren,  be  solicitous  about  worldly  honors.  This  is  not  the  season 
for  honors.  Let  us  postpone  the  whole  question  until  a  future  period. 
They  will  come  in  due  time ;  come  when  our  work  is  done.  Then 
will  the  Lord  "  call  the  laborers  and  give  them  their  hire,  beginning 
from  the  last  even  unto  the  first." 

2.  Our  subject  enforces,  in  no  doubtful  manner,  the  necessity  of 
our  understanding  the  import  and  the  responsibilities  of  our  message. 
We  must  know  it  ourselves,  if  we  would  make  it  known  to  others. 


446  THE   CHRISTIAN  MINISTER   AND   HIS   WORK. 

The  range  of  our  studies  is  great,  and  the  means  are  ample.  We 
have  no  time  to  waste  in  vain  and  frivolous  pursuits.  Our  duties 
demand  that  we  come  full  fraught  into  the  sanctuary  of  God,  "  thor- 
oughly furnished  unto  all  good  works.''  We  must  not  only  preach 
the  Word,  but  we  must  repel  assaults  against  it ;  take  a  step  in  ad- 
vance of  our  ordinary  occupation ;  must  show  its  harmony ;  as  far  as 
possible,  "make  all  men  see  the  fellowship  of  the  mystery"  of  re- 
demption. To  fulfil  this  indispensable  department  of  the  minister's 
vocation,  it  is  obvious  that  he  must  become  familiar  with  a  new,  class 
of  subjects.  He  must  study  to  obtain  those  fundamental  facts  and 
general  principles  of  truth,  natural  and  revealed,  which  constitute 
the  basis  of  the  required  demonstration.  He  must  be  a  laborious 
student  in  all  that  sustains  and  illustrates  the  economy  of  salvation, 
as  well  as  in  all  that  explains  its  authentic  import. 

3.  Let  us  realize  the  true  grandeur  of  our  commission.  Let  its 
sublime  objects  animate  our  souls.  We  labor  not  only  for  the  salva- 
tion of  men ;  we  labor  also  for  the  edification  of  angels.  We  labor 
not  only  in  the  sight  of  mortals;  we  labor  also  in  the  sight  of  celes- 
tial beings.  We  preach  to  two  congregations  at  the  same  moment; 
one  below,  and  the  other  above  us.  What  are  the  most  splendid 
auditories  ever  convened  on  earth,  compared  with  "  the  principalities 
and  powers  in  heavenly  places,"  who  come  down  to  engage  in  the 
solemnities  of  our  worship.  Methinks  they  are  present  with  us  now. 
Poised  upon  celestial  pinions,  they  shed  over  us  the  odors  of  para- 
dise. I  seem  to  hear  the  rustling  of  their  plumes.  The  air  about 
us  is  full  of  fragrance.  Their  benevolent  countenances  beam  with 
delight,  and  their  eyes,  sparkling  with  supernatural  intelligence,  are 
watching  to  catch,  before  we  disperse,  another  proof  of  '^  the  mani- 
fold wisdom  of  God."  To  use  the  impassioned  strain  of  a  familiar 
hymn; 

"  Angels  now  are  hov'ring  round  us, 

Unperceived  they  mix  the  throng, 
Wond'ring  at  the  love  that  crown'd  us, 

Glad  to  join  the  holy  song." 

May  these  considerations  stimulate  us  to  be  "  faithful  stewards  of 
the  manifold  grace  of  God ; "  and  unto  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost,  be  glory,  as  it  was'  in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and  ever  shall 
be,  world  without  end  :  Amen. 


J^-l^  "^^^^^^  /^^/^ 


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LOVE    THE    SUM    OF   CHRISTIANITY.  440 

God  whieli  characterizes  him  above  all  otlicr  interpreters,  even  where 
his  actual  power  of  criticism  might  have  failed,  interprets  this  pas- 
sage, simply  and  correctly,  to  mean  that  love  is  the  essence  of  the 
being  of  God;  that  God  is  love,  and  essentially  nothing  else  than 
love.  So  strongly  does  he  put  it  as  to  convert  the  proposition,  and 
say  that  "  love  is  God."  John  Wesley  ^nd  others,  who  may  be  called 
the  theologians  of  the  higher  Christian  life,  follow  Luther. 

And  now  let  me  say,  that  when  we  have  this  conception  in  its  ful- 
ness, it  Jirst  satisfies  the  demand  of  the  heart,  and  then  takes  up  and 
meets  that  other  demand,  which  was  postponed  and  put  aside — the 
demand  of  the  intellect.  Christianity  comes  to  the  heart  first,  and 
seeks  to  fill  it;  and  when  the  want  of  the  heart  is  met  once  by  such 
a  revelation  coming  to  the  soul  as  a  reality,  then  the  fulness  of  the 
heart  expands  and  fills  the  intellect  as  well.  There  is  no  want  even  of 
the  logical  faculty  left  unsupplicd.  Let  us  look  into  this,  and  see  how 
it  is.  God  is  love,  and  essentially  love.  Does  not  this  imply  a  personal 
God,  in  the  first  place  ?  The  great  want  of  the  logical  faculty  is  an 
absolute.  But  all  experience  shows  that  no  course  of  human  inquiry 
has  resulted  in  the  knowledge  of  an  absolute,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
personal  God.  The  last  results,  in  the  older  systems,  say  Hindooism 
and  Buddhism,  are  the  ideas  of  absolute  quiescence,  of  rest,  or  of  non- 
being.  The  logical  character  of  this  doctrine  might  be  vindicated, 
perhaps,  as  well  as  any  other  with  reference  to  God,  apart  from  Chris- 
tianity. Later  researches,  professing  to  be  scientific,  have  ended  in 
making  the  whole  universe  (not  the  manifestation  of  God,  but)  God 
Himself,  and  thus  give  us  Pantheism,  instead  of  Theism.  But  take 
the  proposition,  God  is  love,  and  let  it  fill  the  heart,  and  let  the  intel- 
lect go  to  work  upon  it;  and  it  will  find  satisfiiction.  If  God  is  love, 
then  God  is  a  personal  being.  There  cannot  be  love  without  a  personal, 
vital  activity ;  we  can't  conceive  it.  So,  then,  the  logical  issue  of  the 
proposition  in  my  text  is,  that  there  is  a  divine  person,  a  God,  to 
whom  we  can  speak  and  say,  "  0  Thou ! "  One  of  the  bitterest  utter- 
ances that  I  ever  heard  was  the  saying  of  a  great  philosopher  and 
divine  of  Germany,  a  man  of  pure  and  noble  thinking  faculties,  and 
of  noble  moral  faculties  as  well,  but  who  had  bewildered  himself  for 
years  in  mazes  of  thought,  apart  from  the  simple  lines  of  Christian 
logic — that  is,  the  logic  of  the  heart.  In  speaking  of  this  question, 
the  love  of  God,  he  said  to  a  friend  of  mine,  "  I  have  met  several 
English  and  American  divines  and  theologians,  of  the  evangelical 
20 


450  LOVE   THE    SUM    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

school,  SO  called,  and  I  never  met  one  of  them  that  did  not  seem  to 
recognise  a  personal  God."  The  tears  came  into  his  eyes  as  he  con- 
tinued :  ''  If  I  could  do  as  you  do — kneel  down  at  night,  and  say  to 
God,  "  0  Thoii !  "—if  I  could  say  that,  and  feel  it,  I  should  be  will- 
ing to  die,  and  happy  to  die."  I  am  very  glad  to  say  that  his  soul 
has  since  emerged  into  a  higher  and  purer  light  and  experience.  But 
I  state  the  case  to  show  you  what  trouble,  pain,  and  sorrow,  may 
come  of  not  getting  this  full  Christian  conception  of  God,  througlx 
the  experience  of  the  heart. 

In  saying  that  "■  God  is  love,"  we  mean,  further,  that  He  is  a  being 
whose  very  nature  is  to  reveal  Himself,  to  impart  Himself,  to  diffuse 
to  others  His  own  essential  bliss.  So,  then,  we  get  these  two  thoughts, 
as  well  as  the  great  richness  and  fulness  of  the  feeling,  God  is  love — 
first,  there  is  a  personal  God;  and  second.  He  is  a  God  that  must  re- 
veal Himself,  for  love  is  His  essence.  Love  is  nothing  if  it  is  not 
revealing ;  love  is  nothing  if  it  does  not  impart  itself.  Love  is  al- 
ways gushing  forth;  it  dies  when  it  is  concealed,  when  there  are  no 
manifestations  allowed,  or  possible  to  it.  You  know,  in  your  own 
affections,  when  they  are  strongest,  they  are  always  going  out  to- 
wards another  object.  So,  then,  we  get  from  this  idea  of  God  the 
divine  doctrine  of  the  blessed  Trinity — the  manifestation  of  love  in 
His  Son  through  the  Eternal  Spirit.  Here  we  find  the  key  of  all 
these  rich,  beautiful,  yet  otherwise  mysterious  phrases  in  John's 
Gospel,  in  which  it  speaks  of  the  eternal  love  of  the  Father  towards 
the  Son,  and  of  the  glory  shared  between  the  Father  and  the  Son, 
lona:  before  the  world  was.  And  from  this  idea  of  a  revealinsr 
and  manifesting  God,  we  get  also  the  true  doctrine  of  the  creation 
and  of  the  universe.  If  "  God  is  love,"  it  is  easy  to  explain  the 
wondrous  beauty  and  order  of  the  "  Cosmos."  Love  is  essentially 
creative.  Have  you  ever  thought  of  that  ?  The  very  primal  func- 
tion of  love  upon  the  earth  is  creative  and  productive.  And  so,  all 
the  splendor  and  all  the  magnificence  of  the  physical  universe,  with 
all  its  adaptations  to  the  wants  and  to  the  culture  of  humanity,  are 
fruits  of  the  love  of  God,  the  creating,  the  imparting  love.  But  the 
highest  manifestation  of  the  creative  love  of  God  is  that  shown  in 
making  man  a  spiritual  being,  capable  of  reflecting  God,  made  in 
God's  image,  endowed  with  free  will  and  conscience.  And  the  love 
was  none  the  less,  that  this  creation  included  the  dread  gift  of  con- 
science and  of  free  will,  implying  the  possibility  of  sin  and  fall.    Of 


LOVE   THE    SUM    OF   CHRISTIANITY.  451 

the  history  of  that  Ml  I  need  not  dwell,  further  than  to  say  that  it 
opens  for  us  again  the  highest  and  richest  manifestation  of  the  love 
of  God,  after  all.  "  Herein  is  love,  not  that  ice  loved  God,  but  (hat 
He  loved  us,  and  sent  His  Son  to  he  the  propitiation  for  our  sins." 
In  this  was  manifested  the  love  of  God  toward  us,  because  that 
"  God  sent  His  only -begotten  Son  into  the  world,  that  ice  miijht  live 
through  Him."  And  what  a  summing  up  of  our  knowledge  of  God's 
love  to  man  is  contained  in  the  words,  "  God  so  loved  the  world,  that 
He  gave  His  onli/-begottcn  Son,  that  ichosoever  belicveth  in  Hini 
should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life." 

Can  we  fail  to  draw  the  inference,  with  St.  Paul,  that  the  love 
which  makes  such  a  gift  will  spare  no  other  gift?  "iZe  that  s^Kircd 
not  His  own  Son,  but  delivered  Him  up  for  us  all,  hoio  shall  He  not 
with  Him  also  freely  give  ws  cdl  things?"  He  '^  spared  not "  Ilis  own 
Son  !  There  is  no  extremity  of  pain  and  sorrow  that  was  not  put  upon 
that  beloved  Son.  There  is  no  intensity  of  anguish  and  torment  that 
He  did  not  undergo.  God  "delivered  Him  up  for  us  all."  "Delivered" 
Him  ?  What  does  that  mean  ?  It  means  that  He  gave  Him  to 
endure  every  form  of  evil,  and  submitted  Him  to  every  possible 
agent  and  minister  of  evil — to  evil  of  mind  and  heart  and  soul  and 
body ;  to  evil  from  devils,  from  bad  spirits,  and  from  men — that  He 
might  show  His  love  for  sinners.  Delivered  Him  to  the  evil  passions 
of  men,  stirred  and  empoisoned  by  the  malice  of  devils ;  to  their 
envy,  which  surrendered  Him ;  to  their  treachery,  which  be- 
trayed Him;  to  their  cruelty,  which  scourged  Him;  to  their  pride, 
which  scorned  Him.  "  He  spared  not  His  own  Son  ! "  He  that 
spared  Isaac  in  the  wilderness  when  Abraham,  his  father,  was  abyut 
to  lift  the  knife ;  He  whose  infinite  heart  of  love  could  not  allow  the 
son  of  that  Arabian  wanderer  to  die  a  sacrifice,  but  provided  a  ram 
that  should  take  his  place ;  He  that  spared  Isaac,  spared  not  His  own 
Son !  When  His  hour  came,  there  could  not  be  found  in  all  the 
universe  a  lamb  to  take  His  place ;  for  He  was  the  "  lamb  slain  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world."  We  can  never  weary  of  looking  at 
the  cross,  as  the  highest  manifestation  of  the  love  of  God.  0,  let 
us  look  at  it  to-day,  and  say,  "God  is  love!"  0,  Lamb  of  God, 
was  ever  pain,  was  ever  love,  like  Thine '(  It  was  the  infinite  love 
of  the  Father  manifested  in  the  gift  of  His  beloved  Son  ! 

II.  The  nest  point  is,  the  experience  of  Christianity — the  Chris- 


452  LOVE    THE    SUM    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

tiaa  '■'■  dwelletli  in  God,  and  God  dwclletli  in  him."  Here  we  have 
tlie  theology  of  the  Gospel  translated  into  life  for  us.  The  very 
essence  of  the  Christian  life  is,  intercourse  with  God.  When  we 
first  come  to  the  cross,  and  learn  that  the  bleeding  Jesus  died  for 
us ;  when  we  are  first  able  to  say,  0  Lord,  I  love  Thee  for  Thine  in- 
finite love  to  me,  in  the  gift  of  Thy  dear  Son;  when  our  hearts  feel 
the  first  throb  of  love  to  God  because  "He  Jirst  loved  us" — then, 
too,  we  have  the  first  emotion  of  a  genuine  Christian  experience. 
And  the  whole  course  of  that  experience,  from  its  beginning,,  at 
conversion,  to  its  consummation  in  glory,  may  he  summed  up  in  the 
language  of  the  text — the  Christian  "  dwelletli  in  God,  and  God  in 
him."  The  home  of  the  Christian  is  in  God — the  home  of  his  heart, 
the  home  of  his  afi'ection,  the  home  of  his  feelings,  the  palace  of  his 
richest  imaginings,  and  the  daily  home  of  his  common  life.  To 
dwell  in  God  implies,  that  all  the  thought,  and  all  the  feelings,  and 
all  the  plans,  and  all  the  aims,  and  all  the  affections  of  life,  are  given 
to  God — lost  and  swallowed  up  in  God.  And  not  only  does  the 
Christian  dwell  in  God,  according  to  St.  Paul,  but  "  God  dwelleth  in 
him."  Not  only  does  the  true  believer  find  his  home  in  God,  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  He  makes  the  believer's  heart  His  royal  dwelling 
place  on  earth.  The  heart  of  the  sinner — saved  by  grace — the  poor 
heart  that  has  been  the  seat  of  evil  affections  and  passions — the  heart, 
that  seems  so  little  and  mean,  is  made  the  home  of  the  infinite  God. 
He  takes  up  his  abode  in  the  humblest  soul  that  is  willing'  to  make 
room  for  Him-,  and  dwells  in  it.  Do  you  notice  the  phrase,  and  the 
force  of  it?  Many  people  seem  to  think  that  religious  joy  is  occa- 
sional and  spasmodic ;  that  nothing  more  than  occasional  visits  from 
God  can  be  expected  in  Christian  experience.  But  this  is  not  the 
doctrine  of  the  text.  It  may  be  true  that  even  an  occasional  glimpse 
of  His  ineffable  beauty  and  glory  is  more  than  we  deserve ;  i^  is  an 
infinite  condescension,  on  the  part  of  God,  to  '■'  visit  man  "  at  all.  But 
His  love  in  Christ  goes  far  beyond  this.  He  not  only  "  visits  and 
redeems"  His  people,  but  takes  up  His  ahode  in  J:heir  hearts. 
The  Spirit  of  God  makes  His  home  in  the  soul,  and  forms  its  light 
and  joy  in  the  higher  Christian  life.  A  fitful  experience,  satisfied, 
with  rare  glimpses  of  the  face  of  God,  finding  Him -only  in  occasional 
spasms  of  devotion,  and  theh  returning  to  the  cares  of  the  world — 
that  it  is  not  the  fulness  of  Christian  life  or  Christian  experience. 
Mark,  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  even  an  experience  like  this  is  not 


LOVE   THE    SUM    OF   CHRISTIANITY.  453 

a  good  thins:.  I  would  not  venture  to  quench  the  smoking  flax ; 
nay,  I  pray  God  to  kindle  it  into  a  flame  in  any  poor  soul  that  has 
but  a  limited  experience  of  God.  But  the  daily  prayer  of  all  earnest 
souls  is,  and  ought  to  bo,  ''  Fill  us  with  all  Thy  fulness,  Lord." 

And  when  the  soul  dwells  in  God,  and  is  filled  with  ''  all  his  ful- 
ness," its  experience  is  not  only  rich  and  joyous,  but  also  calming 
and  satisfying !  How  the  cares  of  life  vanish,  as  the  soul  more  and 
more  becomes  filled  with  the  love  of  God !  How  the  fever  of  life 
is  subdued,  as  the  passions  are  quenched,  or  rather  baptized,  elevated, 
and  transfigured,  by  the  power  and  the  presence  of  the  love  of  God  ! 
"0,  love  divine,  how  sweet  Thou  art! 
When  shall  I  find  my  willing  heart, 

All  taken  up  by  Thee  !  ' 

I  thirst,  I  faint,  I  die  to  prove 
The  greatness  of  redeeming  love, 
■  The  love  of  Christ  to  me  !  " 

III.  And  now  let  us  glance,  thirdli/,  at  the  morals  of  Christianity, 
summed  up,  in  our  test,  iu  the  phrase,  the  Christian  "dwells  in 
love."  This  is  the  third  element  in  the  trinity  of  the  Christian  life. 
The  believer  knows  God  as  he  loves  Him;  he  experiences  God  in 
His  indwelling  Spirit;  he  works  out  the  love  of  God  within  him  in 
the  moral  manifestations  of  his  daily  life  and  conduct.  He  "  dwell- 
eth  in  love  " — that  is  the  phrase  of  the  text.  Love  is  the  atmosphere 
that  surrounds  him.  He  takes  it  iu,  so  to  speak,  with  every  breath ; 
it  is  carried,  by  the  working  of  the  heart,  into  all  the  circulation, 
purifying,  strengthening,  giving  li/e  to  his  whole  nature.  And  it 
is  light  as  well  as  life.  All  duties,  whether  in  our  relations  to  God 
or  to  man,  are  clearly  discerned  in  this  luminous  atmosphere  of  love. 
"  We  love  Him,"  says  the  Apostle,  "  because  He  first  loved  us." 
There  is  no  trustworthy  morality  which  has  not  this  for  its  basis  and 
foundation,  for  "love  "is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law."  When  the 
shrewd  scribe,  to  tempt  our  Saviour,  asked  him,  "  MaMcr,  ivhich  is 
the  great  commandment  of  the  law?"  the  answer  came  promptly  in 
the  summing  up  of  all  ethics  in  the  simple  injunction,  "  Thou  shalt 
love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and 
with  all  thy  mind,  and  thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself" 
(Matt.,  xxii,  31). 

If  you  wish  to  build  up  a  pure  moral  character  in  this  life,  do  not 
put  any  altar  before  the  altar  of  God — not  even  the  altar  of  your 


454  LOVE   THE    SUM    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

natural  affections,  not  even  the  altar  of  your  love  for  father,  mother, 
sister,  brother,  wife,  or  husband.  There  is  the  rock  upon  which 
thousands  have  split.  You  remember  the  parable  of  the  royal  wed- 
ding feast;  how,  even  when  the  banquet  was  ready,  the  oxen  and 
the  failings  killed,  the  invited  guests  excused  themselves.  One 
went  to  his  farm,  another  was  busy  with  his  merchandise,  and  a 
third  had  married  a  wife.  And  this  parable  is  repeating  itself  in 
your  personal  history  to-day.  Your  heart  is  set  upon  your  farm, 
your  merchandise,  your  wife,  rather  than  upon  God ;  uiiless  you  are, 
in  the  language  of  the  text,  "  dwelling  in  love."  The  objects  of  our 
cupidity  and  of  our  natural  aflFection  are  pe^rpetually  coming  between 
us  and  Grod.  "  But  are  our  natural  affections  to  be  crushed  ?  "  God 
forbid.  Christ  wept  over  the  grave  of  Lazarus,  His  "  friend."  In 
this,  as  in  many  other  eases.  He  displayed  natural  affection  in  all  its 
fulness.  There  is  nothing  in  religion  incompatible  with  the  natural 
affections.  Nay,  you  will  find  that  he  who  loves  God  most,  has  tire 
strongest  and  most  trustworthy  love  for  kindred  and  friends;  the 
human  affections  are  purged  of  all  dross  by  the  fire  of  love  to  God. 

And  so,  he  that  "  dwelleth  in  love"  is  true,  and  faithful,  and 
unselfish,  in  all  the  relations  of  life.  Because  he  loves  God,  he 
"  loves  his  brother  also."  In  men,  as  iu  God,  love  is  essentially 
creative  and  productive.  It  tends  always  to  impart ;  never  to  with- 
hold. The  man  that  "  dwells  in  love,"  can  never  be  a  churl.  I  am 
not  now  speaking  of  charity  in  that  narrow  sense  to  which  we  often 
restrict  it — money  giving;  the  very  restriction  showing  that  we 
value  money  more  than  all  other  things.  I  am  speaking  of  the 
charity  of  a  loving  heart,  full  of  feeling  and  of  tenderness: — a  heart 
which  cannot  help  imparting  itself.  Such  a  heart  prompts  to  all 
good  and  kind  actions,  just  when  they  are  called  for.  It  will  give 
tears,  when  tears  and  sympathy  can  bless  or  sooth ;  it  will  give  sac- 
rifice, when  sacrifice  can  help  or  save  some  suffering  soul.  Earnest 
love  to  God  onust  display  itself  in  tender  attributes,  iu  all  kind  and 
gentle  ministrations,  in  all  forms  of  benevolence  and  personal  sacri- 
fice. And  these  things  become  the  more  easy,  the  more  we  know 
of  the  love  of  God. 

"  The  Christian  dwells  in  love."  Especially  will  this  love  show 
itself  to  those  who  are  sharers  in  the  same  love.  The  Christian 
feels  for  those  that  are  "  of  the  household  of  faith  " — an  affection 
different  in  kind,  as  well  as  in  degree,  from  that  which  he  feels  for 


LOVE   THE   SUM   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  455 

others.     ''This  is  the  message  that  ye  heard  from  the  beginning, 
that  we  should  love  one  another."     Again,  "  this  is  the  command- 
ment, that  we  should  believe  on  the  name  of  His  Son  Jesus  Christ, 
and  love  one  another."     Our  love  to  Christians,  then,  is  something 
over  and  above  the  general  duty  of  philanthropy  and  charity,  be- 
cause Christ  has  made  our  "  love  of  the  brethren  "  the  test  and 
criterion  of  our  love  to  Him.     I  fear  we  arc  losing  sight  of  this,  and 
allowing  the  world's  maxims  to  creep  into  the  church.     Let  us  not 
prate  of  Christian  experience,  if  we  fail  in  this  very  first  of  Christian  • 
duties.     Do  not  pi'ofess  to  "  dwell  in  God,"  if  you  harbor  any  feeling 
of  envy  or  uncharitableness  for  your  brethren  in  the  church.     How 
can  we  ''  love  God,  if  we  do  not  love  our  brother  also  ?  "     "  Let  us 
love  one  another,  for  love  is  of  God ;  and  every  one  that  lovcth  is  born 
of  God,  and  knoweth  God.     He  that  loveth  iwt,  knowcth  not  God ; 
for  God  is  love."   /'If  a  man  say,  I  love  God,  and  hateth  his 
brother,  he  is  a  liar;  for  he  that  loveth  not  his  brother  whom  he 
hath  seen,  how  can  he  love  God  whom  he  hath  not  seen?"     0 
brethren,  in  this  church,  members  surrounding  this  altar,  partaking 
month  after  month  the  broken  body  and  blood  of  Jesus — 0,  men  of 
this  church  of  God,  I  pray  you  and  command  you  to  love  one  another! 
But  Christian  morality  has  its  wider  sphere.     The  love  of  God  in 
the  soul  breeds  affections  that  are  not  and  cannot  be  limited  by  the 
boundaries  of  the  family,  the  church,  or  the  State.     My  first  care, 
indeed,  as  a  Christian,  may  be  to  look  after  thbse  of  "  my  own 
household,"  whether  after  the  flesh  or  after  Christ;  but  my  charity, 
beginning  at  home,  must  not  end  there.     Such  a  charity,  so  limited, 
is  in  fact  but  a  refinement  of  selfishness.     But  the  very  ofiicc  and 
work  of  Christian  morals  is  to  root  out  selfishness.     The  natural  man 
makes  himself  the  centre  and  the  aim  of  his  plans.    By  this  criterion, 
we  may  test  ourselves.     In  the  natural  life,  sclf'i^  the  centre  of  all 
the  activities,  the  aff"ections,  the  aims  of  the  man.     If  it  be  so  with 
you,  my  friend,  then  you  have  not  that  experience  of  Christian  love 
which  develops  Christian  morality.     It  is  the  essential  mark  of  the 
child  of  God  to  make  love  the  governing  principle  of  his  life.     That 
love  is  inconsistent  with  this  supreme  devotion  to  one's  self.     And 
as  to  indulging  hatred  toward  any  human  being,  the  very  mention 
of  it  is  absurd.     What  is  hatred  ?     "  It  is  the  opposite  of  love."     I 
grant  you  there  could  be  no  hatred  if  there  were  no  love,  just  as 
there  could  be  no  darkness  if  there  were  no  light.     But  that  docs 


456  LOVE   THE    SUM    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

not  vindicate  hatred.  There  is  no  hatred  in  God.  He  loves  all  His 
creatures.  He  hates  the  ungodliness  of  men — their  crimes,  wrongs, 
and  vices.  He  hates  the  wickedness  of  the  world,  but  the  world  and 
man  He  loves.  What  is  hate  ?  It  is  wrath  kept  till  it  gets  old.  Can 
hate  consist  with  virtue  or  with  love  ?  I  do  not  say  that  awjer  is 
always  inconsistent  with  love.  Clod  is  angry  with  the  wicked.  But 
hate — there  is  no  hate,  there  can  be  none,  in  the  pure  heart.  The 
sun  can  never  "go  down  upon  your  wrath,"  if  your  heart  "dwells 
in  love ;  "  and  so  your  anger  can  never  harden  into  hate.  If,  then, 
you  hate  any  man,  my  friend,  pray  God  to  take  that  evil  spirit  away; 
pray  that  you  may  be  able  to  love  your  brother,  as  a  sign  of  your 
love  to  God. 

If  what  we  have  said  be  true,  the  science  of  Christian  ethics  is 
luminous  to  him  who  "  dwells  in  love."  No  questions  of  casuistry 
can  long  perplex  the  loving  soul.  He  finds  it  easy  to  perform  his 
duties  to  God.  Submission,  trust,  obedience — how  natural  these  are, 
Avhen  the  heart  tends  toward  God  by  the  gravitation  of  a  perfect  love ! 
And  this  love  is  the  surest  bond  of  fidelity  and  perseverance;  we 
cannot  backslide  unless  our  hearts  grow  cold.  The  needle  of  a  gen- 
uine love  never  swerves  from  its  polarity.  Nor  can  abstract  ques- 
tions perplex  the  loving  soul.  It  cares  not  to  settle  the  ground  of 
moral  obligation,  to  ask  Vi^hether  its  conduct  shall  sort  with  the  "fit- 
ness of  things,"  or  with  "  general  utility."  Its  happy  instincts  lead 
it  straight  on  in  the  way  of  right.  God  never  abandoned  a  loving 
heart  to  permanent  perplexity  or  doubt.  And  so  with  our  duties  to 
man.  When  we  love  our  neighbor,  we  cannot  harm  him  ;  nay,  not 
content  with  this  negative  benevolence,  we  render  him,  with  sponta- 
neous and  unconstrained  activity,  all  offices  of  tenderness  and  charity. 

You  have  all  heard  of  Lord  Bacon's  saying,  "  Knowlecjge  is 
power."  But  perhaps  you  have  not  all  heard  of  another  saying  of 
Bacon's,  "  The  angels  fell  by  striving  to  be  like  God  in  power ; 
Adam,  by  striving  to  be  like  God  in  knowledge;  but  neither  angels 
nor  men  ever  transgressed,  or  shall  transgress,  by  striving  to  be  like 
God  in  love."  Ah !  love  is  better  than  power,  and  better  than  knowl- 
edge, because  "  God  is  love."  But  by  choosing  the  better  part,  we 
get  the  lesser  also.  Choose  .the  lesser,  and  you  shall  lose  the  whole. 
If  there  be  knowledge,  it  shall  vanish  away;  but  love  never  faileth. 
The  ambition  for  knowledge  or  for  power^  instead  of  love,  has  been 


LOVE   THE    SUM    OF   CHRISTIANITY.  4')( 

the  curse  of  Christian  men,  of  cliurches,  and  of  nations.  But  for 
this  sad,  Satanic  ambition,' there  had  been  no  Paradise  lost;  but  for 
it,  after  Christ  had  opened  the  way  for  man  to  a  Paradise  regained, 
there  had  been  none  of  the  ages  of  darkness,  sin,  and  sorrow,  that 
take  the  place  of  what  should  have  been  the  ages  of  a  pure,  undoubting 
faith.  In  the  first  Christian  centuries,  the  Gnostics  fell  by  seeking 
knowledge,  instead  of  love;  the  scholastics  in  the  middle  age  erred 
in  the  same  way;  the  Pantheists  of  our  time  are  their  modern  fol- 
lowers. 

Let  us  take  warning.  There  is  safety  and  strength  only  for  those  who 
"  dwell  in  love."  There  is  knowledge  that  shall  last  forever  only  for 
those  that  "  dwell  in  love."  There  is  power  to  overcome  the  world, 
and  sin,  and  death,  and  hell,  only  for  those  that  ''  dwell  in  love." 
There  is  salvation  only  for  those  that  "dwell  in  love."  For  ''God 
is  Lovej  and  he  that  dwelleth  in  love  dwelleth  in- God,  and  God  in 
him." 


/e9<^ 


^yiltli0miiff^-^>i'r:^f^^ 


r./.  ./# 


^i^^'^  ^: 


mm^m 


